The problem of medicines non-adherence is a hot topic, with considerable debate over who should or shouldn't play a role in addressing this widespread issue. Atlantis Healthcare encourages government, pharmaceutical businesses, healthcare professionals and pharmacy to keep the focus on the patient and work together to think of ways we can improve the level of patient support available.
Michael Whittaker, Chief Executive Officer of Atlantis Healthcare, a world-leader in designing patient support programmes to combat medicines non-adherence, explains that while the patient must remain at the centre of the medicines non-adherence debate, addressing this issue has far reaching benefits for global Healthcare Systems and the wider economy.
Whittaker says as chronic conditions such as diabetes, high cholesterol, and respiratory and cardiovascular diseases make up an increasing proportion of illnesses, ensuring patients stay on the right course of treatment once prescribed is vital to achieving better population health outcomes and optimising government spending on health.
World Health Organisation data currently shows that 50 percent of patients do not take their medications as prescribed, leading to stretched hospital resources, reduced efficacy of medications, diminishing workplace productivity and poorer long-term patient health outcomes.
"In the US, non-adherence generated an estimated $300 billion in avoidable medical spending during 2009. In Europe, non-adherence costs the economy €125 billion per year on average. These concerning statistics highlight the need for action" says Whittaker.
"Improving the level of support an individual receives during their treatment journey is key to helping patients better self-manage their condition, decreasing their chance of relapse, and ultimately improving their quality of life."
"Everybody in healthcare has a role to play in providing patients with improved support, education and guidance on how to best manage their treatment journey. If we all stay focused on the patient, and innovate as a collective group to help individuals better understand their condition, better outcomes will be achieved not only for the patient, but for the wider economy" says Whittaker.
Making patient support more accessible to individuals is an important part of the solution explains Whittaker.
"If we cannot effectively connect with patients to ensure they are compliant with prescribed treatment recommendations, the problem of medicines non-adherence will continue to escalate."
"It doesn't matter how much support is out there for patients if they don't know that it exists. This is where Government, Pharmacy, and Healthcare professionals have an important role to play. The first step is to build awareness that a patient support network exists and then encourage engagement at each patient -facing touch point - this is when we will start to see incremental improvements in the way patients are equipped to self-manage their condition."
Whittaker makes the point that "to make any head-way in addressing the problem of medicines non -adherence, the health industry must openly communicate and create a forum for discussion that is wholly centred on delivering improved support for patients. This is the only sustainable way forward to deliver effective patient support."
About Atlantis Healthcare
Established in 1993, Atlantis Healthcare has offices in the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, Australia and New Zealand providing a unique service to address the issue of non-adherence.
We create engaging adherence programmes for patients and clinicians using our extensive research, profiling and in-depth understanding of treatment adherence. We build bespoke personalised programmes tailored to address the specific barriers to treatment adherence. Each programme captures the adherence profile of an individual patient, their medication and illness beliefs and their specific support needs. This ensures interventions address the underlying drivers of non-adherence on an individual patient basis to drive long-term behaviour change.