Pharmacotherapy Newsletter

Volume 1, Issue 29, 08/03/2009

Question

What are the two main factors or concepts that all clinicians should factor into medication adherence?

Answer

Periodically, the editorial board will release an issue that explains general principles or terms that all clinicians should be familiar with, as they are frequently encountered in clinical practice.  They are also concepts built upon in many of the newsletters.  While clinicians do need to understand the details surrounding the biological response conferred by drug therapy, they also need to know concepts that translate into a patient actually taking the medications or treatments being offered to them.  One that is important to drug therapy is medication adherence.  

Medication adherence is well known to not only be an important factor in patient outcomes, but can have significant contributions to the overall cost of healthcare.(1-3)  In fact, with many clinicians and institutions being subject to the increasing number of performance measures that reward based on quality of care or goal attainment, medication adherence has become a very important component to the overall care being provided.  There are obviously a significant number of factors that can contribute to medication adherence and those will be addressed in a future newsletter issue.(4-6)  

This issue will cover two main factors or concepts that all clinicians need to consider when implementing techniques that attempt to increase medication adherence....

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