Content about Compliance

BOSTON When a patient isn’t showing a response to a medication, a common tactic the doctor might use is to increase the dosage. According to a new study, however, the ineffectiveness might be happening because the patient isn’t properly taking the medication.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. A report by the New England Healthcare Institute that addressed the role of care teams in improving medication adherence among patients has received support from the charitable arm of the National Association of Chain Drug Stores.

CONSHOHOCKEN, Pa. Take Care Health Systems, which is owned by Walgreens, announced on Monday that treatment of pharyngitis and upper respiratory infections at its clinics exceed national quality benchmarks, according to an analysis of data collected through its EMR system by the Jefferson School of Population Health.

PARK CITY, Utah A healthcare technology company that uses social media and self-management tools to help people with chronic illnesses is launching a mobile health technology designed to improve adherence.

KeyVive said that its Simplatype mHealth technology, a new SMS system, utilizes proprietary technology with existing cell phone carriers to provide an effective way for practitioners and patients to communicate, store conversations and integrate with electronic records, the company said.

WOONSOCKET, R.I. Consumers are much more likely to adhere to their prescription medication therapy if given “a clear and active choice” in recorded telephone prompts from their pharmacy, new research into patient compliance from CVS Caremark demonstrated.

COLUMBUS, Ohio A pilot study conducted by an endocrinologist at Nationwide Children’s Hospital is looking to increase medication adherence among adolescent diabetic patients with text message alerts.

RALEIGH, N.C. A healthy relationship with a community pharmacist can improve health outcomes for patients and save money, a new collaborative study from North Carolina-based Kerr Drug and the University of North Carolina revealed.

Those benefits stem from direct interventions in patient therapy by pharmacists, coupled with a coordinated approach to the patient’s treatment regimen by his or her pharmacist and doctor, according to Kerr.

WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT'S IMPORTANT CVS Caremark made a major push to showcase the tools it uses to curb costs as it revealed a study indicating that more lax generic regulations could save states millions of dollars, not to mention that its annual insights report revealed an increase in generic dispensing rates.

(THE NEWS: CVS Caremark study: Less restrictive generic laws could curb state Medicaid costs. For the full story, click here)

WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT'S IMPORTANT Though Drug Store News is a leader among trade publications for the retail pharmacy industry, its readership remains small compared with the consumer magazines one typically finds on a store shelf, thus keeping its wealth of news and analysis confined to a limited audience. But the publication of an article in The New York Times brings to nationwide attention an issue of critical importance that frequently receives play in this magazine’s pages: medication adherence.