America's Other Drug Problem...?

By Anonymous (not verified) on May 12, 2008

I am really looking forward to this years Patient Compliance summit. When I first started this project I was very confused. Improving patient compliance, persistence and adherence seem to me a very logical and I hate to say it but simple process.

However, the more I have worked on this the more I understand why improving patient compliance is not an easy task, so much so that it is commonly known as Americas other drug problem.
Contributing to Americas other drug problem are numerous behavioral, social, economic, medical, and policy-related factors that must be addressed if medication adherence rates are to improve. This includes lack of awareness among clinicians about basic adherence management principles, poor communication between patients and clinicians, operational aspects of pharmacy and medical practice, and professional barriers. Moreover, adherence improvement is affected by federal policies that provide insufficient funding for adherence-related research and federal and state laws and regulations that impact the availability of compliance assistance programs. All of these problems contribute to a rising tide of poor medication adherence and all must be addressed. (Enhancing Prescription Medicine Adherence: A National Action Plan, NCIPE- for more information please go to http://www.ncpie.net/)
But these challenges can be overcome; Quebec is a case in point. AstraZeneca have helped produce a project that has created a synergy between government groups, health professionals, patients and health care providers. They started their symposium 13 November 2007 and a year on they seem to have developed a program that seems to be working! I am delighted that Jean-Pierre Grgoire, Dean of the Facult de pharmacie from Universit Laval will be presenting and educating us on the progress they have made and what they plan to do in the future.
Personally, I believe the best solutions come with improved relationships between pharma and all the stakeholders and when pharma truly understand their patient.