Advances in Patient Adherence to Medical Treatment Regimens: The Emerging Role of Technology in Adherence Monitoring and Management

Abstract

Adherence is a term used to describe the extent to which an individual's behavior coincides with healthrelated instructions or recommendations given by a healthcare provider in the context of a specific disease or disorder. Despite significant advances in biomedical science related to the treatment of disease, the problem of nonadherence remains pervasive and may be aptly described as a global public health concern. The recent proliferation of telemedicine coupled with the ubiquity of personal computers, mobile phones, and other wireless communication devices have, in part, led to the development and implementation of a variety of technology-based methods used to assess, monitor, and manage adherence. As the chronic illness burden continues to grow, these methods may offer solutions to some of the limitations of traditional means particularly for conditions requiring complex self-management and lifestyle adjustment. In this article, we briefly review recent advances in adherence monitoring and management including m-health, home telemonitoring systems, web-based support (i.e., self-management websites and virtual support groups), and patient portals and personal health records before concluding with a brief account of some exciting new technologies under development in the context of patient adherence.

Outsourcing Memory in Response to an Aging Population

“…Medication nonadherence costs billions annually due to avoidable treatment failures, illness complications, etc. (Howren, Van Liew, & Christensen, 2013). External reminders delivered through currently available pill apps on smartphones are of limited use to older Americans because fewer than 25% of them use a smartphone (Pew Research Center, 2014).…”

A Web-Based Tailored Intervention to Support Illness Management in Patients With an Acute Coronary Syndrome: Pilot Study

“…Web-based interventions are promising avenues to enhance patient access to information resources post discharge [1,9,23]. Although the number of these technology-driven interventions is growing exponentially in the health care field [24], results on their efficacy remain unclear [1,9,23]. Indeed, some studies have shown that the use of information and communications technologies (ICTs) can positively affect illness management [25,26].…”