The Med Melee: Medication adherence in the U.S. and where it stands today

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“Take once a day with food. Take once every PM before bed with water—but make sure it’s on an empty stomach.” Instructions such as these are all too familiar to many Americans balancing multiple—and sometimes complex—medication regimens. Whether it be an infection-eradicating antibiotic or a more robust prescription for a chronic illness, most of us (at some point in time) have had to take some form of prescribed medication. But how well are we doing?

A recent article published in Forbes magazine addresses this exact question and the results are bewildering to say the least. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 82% of all American adults take at least one prescription medication and 29% take five or more. Adherence to specific medication instructions is critical, yet there are 700,000 emergency department visits and 120,000 hospitalizations due to adverse drug events in the U.S. every year. It’s estimated that medication non-adherence leads to a U.S. death every 19 minutes and adverse drug events have led to over $3.5 billion spent annually on extra medical costs.

The numbers mentioned above confirm that medication adherence in the U.S. is not where it should be. Unfortunately, this problem is purported to get worse before it gets any better. The CDC estimates that the number of adverse drug events will continue to grow based on a number of factors, namely the development of new medications and the aging American population. With these variables in mind, the concept of medication therapy management (MTM) is more important than ever. MTM evaluates a patient’s prescriptions to identify and resolve issues such as drug interactions, inappropriate drugs or doses and whether a patient is taking the medications as prescribed.

The digital health space is making great headway in the realm of MTM with newly polished apps such as Medisafe and MyMedSchedule, which allow patients to receive personalized notifications from providers or caregivers as scheduled medication times approach. With memory issues, inadequate support and lack of education as potential inhibitors of medication adherence, automated alerting technologies, educational tools and an integrated network of care support are a logical next step to steer American medication adherence in a better direction.

Want more statistics on the current state of medication adherence in the U.S.? Check out the full Forbes article, “It’s 10 PM, Do You Know Where Your Meds Are?” here!

SOURCES: Forbes Magazine and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

About DoseSpot 
DoseSpot is a Surescripts certified e-Prescribing platform specifically designed to integrate with electronic health record, electronic dental record, practice management and telehealth software. DoseSpot is certified to e-Prescribe controlled substances and has provided simple, affordable and integratable e-Prescribing solutions to healthcare IT companies since 2009. For more information, please visit www.DoseSpot.com.

Medication Adherence Apps Raise Healthcare Hopes

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Here at DoseSpot,

We’re all about changing the face of America’s prescription system. With our e-prescribing integration platforms, the goal is to make prescription writing and transmission more efficient and secure. Another technological tool making some innovative headway on the prescription front is the smartphone medication adherence app.

Medication non-adherence is a prevalent and costly problem that contributes to poor treatment outcomes and exhausts valuable healthcare resources. The 2013 National Report on Medication Adherence in America estimated that non-adherence is costing the U.S. health care system a whopping $290 billion annually! Interventions to mitigate non-adherence have been largely unsuccessful in the past, but a slew of easy-to-use apps are hoping to improve outcomes.

Using Apple, Android, or Blackberry smartphones, patients can download medication adherence apps such as (hyperlink) MyMedSchedule, MediSafe and RxmindMe, and set basic medication reminders, create schedules, track lab results and more. Former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop once said, “drugs don’t work in patients who don’t take them” and if medication adherence apps can reduce existing headache-inducing treatment blunders, U.S. healthcare providers may finally be able to breathe a much needed sigh of relief.

Sources: Medscape and National Community Pharmacists Association

For more information on medication adherence apps that are currently on the market, explore this helpful link from the American Pharmacists Association:

http://www.pharmacist.com/medication-adherence-there%E2%80%99s-app.

CHALLENGE: Calling all tech-powered women! Do you have what it takes to tackle the U.S. medication adherence issue? If so, check out the 2014 Surescripts Adherence Challenge. Applications are being accepted through July 22!

About DoseSpot

DoseSpot is a Surescripts™ certified e-Prescribing platform specifically designed to integrate with electronic health record, electronic dental record, practice management and telehealth software. DoseSpot has provided simple, affordable and integratable e-Prescribing solutions to healthcare IT companies since 2009. For more information, please visit www.DoseSpot.com.