Medication adherence and monitoring

Abstract

Non-adherence to a drug therapy is often the reason for not achieving the therapeutic goals in patients. Thus, measuring and monitoring drug adherence is an important aspect to understand patients’ adherence patterns and behavior as well as to provide supportive measures to enhance or reestablish adherence to a prescribed regimen. A variety of different Adherence Measurement and Monitoring Systems (AMS) exist although there is no single AMS or method considered to be the gold standard today. These range from simple Apps that issue alerts and reminders to patients up to AMS that facilitate automated, telemedical interactions between the physician and the patient to initiate corrective interventions by making use of a variety of data sources. When applied to patients with several morbidities, co-morbidities, and disabilities appropriate AMS still remain a challenge.