Improving medication adherence: Unlocking the key strategies for managing long-term medication patients

In healthcare, medication adherence cannot be overlooked — it matters most for chronic disease patients who require long-term specialty medication. Taking medication correctly not only controls disease progression effectively and reduces complications, but also significantly lowers healthcare costs and improves patients' quality of life. In reality, however, many factors — drug side effects, the complexity of treatment regimens, financial burden, and misunderstandings about the disease and its treatment — make it difficult for many patients to strictly follow their treatment plan. Especially under limited insurance coverage, these problems are simply handed back to patients as self-directed health education, resulting in even more medication waste.

A randomized controlled trial (RCT) study published in JAMA identified six categories of intervention, including: patient education (for example, regular personalized phone counseling); medication dosage management (using combination drugs to reduce the number of pills a patient takes each day); pharmacist-led collaborative management of chronic disease (including education, more frequent disease-monitoring calls or in-person follow-up visits, and reminders to return for refills); cognitive behavioral therapy (for example, motivational interviewing conducted by trained counselors); medication reminders (for example, refill reminder calls or real-time monitoring and alerts via electronic medication monitors); and incentives to promote adherence (for example, reducing drug costs and rewarding patients and clinicians for reaching disease-management goals).

Which interventions to choose depends on the practicality of patient management and their availability within the healthcare system. Among the interventions shown to be both effective and clinically practical are using combination drugs to reduce daily pill burden, pharmacist-led collaborative management, and regular medication reminders such as phone calls prompting patients to return for refills (with observed absolute improvements in adherence of 10%, 15%, and 33% respectively).

PATIENTSFORCE, a patient support program management company, has long focused on serving as the hub connecting pharmaceutical companies and healthcare institutions. Using its self-developed PJM digital management platform, combined with care services delivered by a decentralized network of clinical healthcare professionals, PATIENTSFORCE has effectively raised medication adherence to over 90% among patients on specialty medications (such as oncology, rare disease, or biologic therapies), while also providing ongoing care services for patients using specialty medical devices. At its core, the company places the patient at the center of care, achieving highly personalized treatment and management.

In summary, improving medication adherence is key to better chronic disease management and patient outcomes. Integrated support and intervention measures not only help patients overcome the challenges of medication adherence but also further improve their treatment outcomes and quality of life — while optimizing pharmaceutical providers' patient service strategies, so that patients are the ultimate beneficiaries.

Evie Wang, Chief Operating Officer, PATIENTSFORCE Media-WIND Health Group (MWHG)

References:

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2718800