We’ve all been there. To get over bronchitis, you need to finish your penicillin. But you’re starting to feel better, so maybe just throw it away.
Not so easy. At least that’s what PillJogger Inc., a Silicon Valley start-up says. The company has developed a way to make people more likely to take their medicine – all of it.
Believe it or not, the problem of medication non-adherence (not taking prescribed medicine) is a $300 billion one. But smartphones and tablets have come to save the day.
PillJogger has derived a solution to encourage patients to take their medicine with a platform that focuses on "human factors," according to CEO Robert Pakter, M.D. "If it isn't fun and rewarding, users aren't going to come back," said Dr. Pakter.
But there are many reasons people stop or don’t begin taking their medication, to begin with, they’re too busy, with too many interruptions during the day to take their medicine at the right time. Side effects, poor doctor-patient communication, health beliefs like fear of dependence, absence of symptoms and of course drug costs.
According to Tara Parker-Pope, nearly three in four Americans do not follow their doctors’ instructions to take medication, a problem that contributes to 125,000 deaths nationwide each year.
FICO, which usually keeps track of credit scores, is now closely monitoring who takes their medication. Called the FICO Medication Adherence Score, the organization says it can predict which patients are at highest risk for skipping or incorrectly using prescription medications by scoring them using publicly available data, like home ownership and job status, and not relying on a patient’s medical history or financial information to predict whether he or she will take medication as directed.
FICO officials, according to Parker-Pope, say insurance companies and other healthcare groups will use the score to identify those patients who could benefit the most from follow-up phone calls, letters and e-mails to encourage proper use of medication.
PillJogger, Inc. officials believe their idea will work because traditional approaches to medical compliance haven't worked, and that the convergence of smart-mobile technology with federally mandated e-prescribing offers a solution benefit patients, providers, pharmaceutical manufacturers, retail pharmacy and payers.
"We're proud of what we've built and more so, of what's in development," Dr. Pakter said of his team. "And I'm happy to say we're working to provide solutions for some of the most established players in pharma and related businesses."
Edited by
Braden Becker
