In a talk at eyeforpharma’s recent Patient Compliance and Communication Europe 2008 conference, Michael Morgan-Curran told, UK Innovation Manager for Astra Zeneca told attendees that innovation for pharma is about impacting positive change that makes patients feel better. The presentation outlined AstraZeneca’s new “Making the Most of Your Medicines” program, an effort to engage community pharmacists to help improve patient adherence and health outcomes.
Morgan-Curran says he believes the program represents the forefront of patient compliance and adherence programs and makes sense because the new opportunities it creates “will make for good business.”
Although a huge effort goes into the process of diagnosis and selection of treatments, he says, very little effort is spent ensuring that the treatment is taken as agreed. Morgan-Curran says in the UK there are about 42 million patients on prescription medications. Of those, only one in six “fully” adheres, one in three adheres “satisfactorily,” and one in six adheres “poorly.”
Morgan-Curran says only 50% take their medicines adequately, resulting in a cost to the government in untaken medicines of more than £100 million annually.
There are many reasons, he says, for poor patient adherence, including practical, psychological and social hurdles.
“What patients believe about their medicines, their disease and the clinicians they work with, affects their willingness to take meds,” Morgan-Curran says. “By understanding these beliefs, we can start to address non-adherence.”
But every individual must be treated differently, he stresses. Some miss their medicines due to complex regimes with multiple dosages. Others are concerned about unwanted side effects or the appropriateness of their medicines. Some are even in denial about their disease treatment.
Improving patient outcomes
The “Making the Most of Your Medicines” program, Morgan-Curran says, aims to improve outcomes of patients on AstraZeneca medicines by assisting community pharmacies to address adherence barriers. “Our goal is to uncover the psychological barriers that exist, partner more effectively with community pharmacies and build mutual, long-term, sustainable relationships with pharmacies and our patients,” he says.
Morgan-Curran says that so far, pharmacists are clamoring to participate in the initiative. Just ten weeks into the program, he says they already believe it will have a major impact on outcomes for patients taking AstraZeneca medications.
“To our knowledge, the program is the first of its kind,” Morgan-Curran says. “Since its launch, we have 900 community pharmacies registered to join and 150 pharmacists have already participated in training. So far, the program is very well received.”
The commitment by AstraZeneca is long-term one, he says, and the feedback – even in the media – has been phenomenal. Much to the company’s delight, one newspaper has even renamed the initiative as the “Making the Most of Your Marvelous Medicines” progam.
For pharmacies, the program is “marvelous”, Morgan-Curran says, because improving adherence strengthens customer relationships, increases pharmacy loyalty and offers pharmacists access to additional training and support. For other stakeholders, like the UK’s National Health Service, it stands to minimize medicine waste, result in fewer repeat visits by patients, complements government initiatives and possibly frees up other healthcare services.
Morgan-Curran says, ultimately, that means better health outcomes for patients.
It all comes down to communication
The bottom line, he says, is that there is an increased responsibility for pharma to ensure that patients have access to the correct information about medicines. Bu they must balance communicating and interacting with patients against the legal and regulatory restrictions in place.
Pharmacists can serve a key “gatekeeper” role to be sure patients receive information in an appropriate way, Morgan-Curran suggests.
“As pharmacists’ roles grow, they’ll be able to form better relationships as front-line healthcare professionals,” he says.
Achieving better adherence, Morgan-Curran predicts, will help doctors, patients and other key stakeholders better see the clinical value of AstraZeneca’s medicines.
“We all have a shared agenda in delivering better outcomes to patients,” he says. “Addressing patient adherence is of strategic importance to us all and we owe it to our prescribers and their patients.”
Author: Lisa Roner, editor, eyeforpharma
