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Adherence matters, and it needs to matter more

By Ian De'Ath on Oct 14, 2011

Well, it’s true. 

Research has shown that physicians don’t consider adherence to be their primary responsibility and seriously underestimate the incidence of non-adherence, often thinking that they are unable to address the issue themselves.  

Instead, they believe that patients are responsible for their own adherence.

A significant number even believe that nurses and pharmacists bear minimal to no responsibility for it. And they’re right. Right? 

When prescribing new or different medication regimens, physicians spend most of the time explaining the purpose, side effects, and how to take the medication—the ‘important stuff’.

Less time (and often no time) is spent on consequences of non-adherence, potential interactions, and refills.

And what does it matter anyway? A patient forgets, on average, about half the information provided 15 minutes after meeting with a doctor.

They remember the first third of the discussion best and remember more about diagnosis than about the details of treatment.

But consider this: As a result of this lack of communication about medications, patients are not being treated properly and the health industry is losing hundreds of millions in revenue.

Adherence does matter, and it needs to matter more.

There’s an abundance of reasons why patients don’t adhere to their medications. A fear of it harming rather than helping is particularly common, with the most frequently used health-related Google search term being ‘drug side-effects.’

And while much of the information on the Internet is accurate, much of it isn’t, requiring healthcare professionals to rebut false information and deliver accurate instructions.

So if patients can’t be responsible for themselves, who can be responsible?

In an ideal world, when patients pick up their prescriptions, pharmacies would offer verbal counseling on the safe use of the medication.

Unfortunately, in today’s high-volume pharmacy environment—busy checkout counters, drive-thrus and home delivery service—in-depth pharmacist-to-patient counseling is no longer the norm.

But what are the other options? It’s clear that the industry must review its approach to marketing medicines.

To maximize sales from brands and overcome the dangerous consequences of patient non-adherence, something needs to change.

The issue of non-adherence cannot be ignored for much longer.

Ian De'Ath, former marketing manager at Boehringer Ingelheim, is director of the London-based communications firm Wizzard.

For everything patient-related, join the industry’s other key players at Patient Adherence, Communication and Engagement (PACE) USA on October 24-25 in Philadelphia and . Download the full PACE agenda and speaker line-up here. Want to know more? Contact laura@eyeforpharma.com.

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