Abstract
Medication non-adherence is associated with almost 200,000 deaths annually and €80–125 billion in the European Union. Novel technological advances (smart pill bottles, digital inhalers and spacers, electronic pill blisters, e-injection pens, e-Health applications, big data) could help managing non-adherence. Healthcare professionals seem however inadequately informed about non-adherence, availability of technological solutions in daily practice is limited, and collaborative efforts to push forward their implementation are scarce. The European Network to Advance Best practices and technoLogy on medication adherencE (ENABLE, COST Action 19132) aims to 1) raise awareness of adherence enhancing solutions, 2) foster knowledge on medication adherence, 3) accelerate clinical application of novel technologies and 4) work collaboratively towards economically viable policy, and implementation of adherence enhancing technology across healthcare systems.
Highlights
Thanks to several major achievements in drug discovery, we have seen an increasing number of patients surviving from diseases such as heart failure, stroke, asthma, and cancer as well as an improvement of the overall quality of life of the elderly population
Despite the availability of many effective medicines, it has been estimated that medication non-adherence, i.e., not taking medication as prescribed, is associated with almost 200,000 deaths annually (European Commission/MEDI-VOICE, 2011)
Without knowing the extent of medication adherence, one could assume that a drug is not working pharmacologically and increase the dose or add another medicine
Summary
Thanks to several major achievements in drug discovery, we have seen an increasing number of patients surviving from diseases such as heart failure, stroke, asthma, and cancer as well as an improvement of the overall quality of life of the elderly population. Successful EU-wide implementation of innovative adherence enhancing technology in daily practice is further hampered by a lack of insight in the different European healthcare systems, reimbursement pathways and policy regulations that significantly differ from country to country (Khan and Socha-Dietrich, 2018) Despite previous efforts such as the influential WHO 2003 report “Adherence to long-term therapies: Evidence for Action” (World Health Organization, 2003), stakeholders, including healthcare professionals, seem still inadequately informed about non-adherence and the availability of innovative technological solutions, and collaborative efforts to push forward their evidence base and implementation are scarce. Materials will become available in local languages in a convenient way to take into account (health) literacy and cultural issues e.g. with infographics
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