The impact of non-adherence on patient health

Compliance with therapies is a crucial factor in determining the success of treatment. Non-adherence poses a significant problem that not only impacts the patient but also the healthcare system. The failure to adhere to medication regimens by patients can result in a considerable deterioration of the underlying condition, unnecessary hospital admissions, leading to higher mortality rates and an increase in healthcare expenditure.

According to published studies, including those by the WHO, estimates are that adherence to chronic medications is only around 50%.¹ Observational studies have seen an average rate of 4.29% of hospital admissions associated with non-adherence. ² 

A variety of factors are likely to affect adherence. Patient education and empowerment,  inconsistent symptoms, and complicated drug treatment regimes are all factors. For disease areas such as oncology, (where the dosing burden can be particularly high), there are also logistical challenges which require clear communication between patient, provider and health system, to ensure regimes are followed accurately and to completion. 

How Huma’s new medication module helps encourage medication adherence.

In Huma’s latest product release (released in May 2023), our product and engineering team have focused on this key challenge - how can we make adhering to prescribed medications easier for patients and clinicians, and improve health outcomes?  

Based on our first-hand experience through hundreds of deployments, and observing patient interactions, our new medication module has been completely re-imagined, to focus on solving this key challenge.

Now both clinicians and patients can efficiently enter medications directly into the Huma platform, either via the mobile app (for patients) or the clinician dashboard. In the UK, integration with Snomed, a medication terminology database, makes finding and entering the prescribed medication easier and faster. Specific medication regimes can be entered into the platform precisely, with options for medication name, dosage (for example take one capsule every four hours, or 500 mg daily), maximum dosage, frequency and time of day.  Medications to be taken ‘as and when needed’ can also be logged by the patient.

For patients and clinicians involved with complex drug regimes, the new Huma medications module offers the flexibility to cater to a wide variety of medication scenarios. For example, an Asthma patient, advised to take two preventer inhalations daily, plus a reliever inhalation as and when required, can log both types of treatment in the medications module. An oncology patient, who might need to take a combination of 3-4 different drug therapies, all at different dosage and frequency, can set up individual medications.

Once their medication schedule is set up (by either a clinician or the patient themselves), reminder notifications are pushed out to the patient, informing them of when their medication is due, and prompting them to update their medications log.

On the clinician portal, any new medications added or deleted by the patient are added to the clinician view of patient medications. If patients exceed a dose, based on the previously defined maximum dosage, a red flag is raised to the clinician. Additionally, a monthly overview enables clinicians to quickly overview a patient's adherence history.

As well as the medication module, Huma has also integrated a learn module into its patient side application. Here, healthcare providers can publish supporting articles, guides and videos to help educate patients on their disease area, treatment and medications, further encouraging adherence.  

In clinical trials, the Huma remote patient monitoring platform has already proven to be effective in encouraging adherence. In a study concerning atrial fibrillation, the Huma platform was shown to achieve up to 99% adherence with key study data points ³. Now with this latest enhancement to our platform, Huma continues to focus on helping to solve one of healthcare’s most intractable challenges, and in doing so, improve overall health outcomes.