A Little Shamless Promotion

I am not that technologically savvy - I let our programmers handle that end of the business - but I learned how to post pictures yesterday and wanted to share our booth at the 2007 Working Mother WorkLife Congress. We were exhibiting to launch our product offering to employers. Intelecare's Personal Reminder Platform increases medication adherence by sending user created reminders via email, text and voice messaging. We serve the needs of patients and caregivers via our website, Intelecare.com, and with our API, our technology can be integrated into any exiting website as a fully branded adherence solution.

For example, Employer X has a wellness program on their website, with Intelecare's API, Employer X can offer medical reminders (ie. daily medication, refills, appointments, etc...) to their employees. Intelecare handles all the backend programming and message delivery. All the client needs to worry about it their front end design.

Reasoning? 23% of all employer health insurance costs are related to patient medication non-adherence. 64% of patients who are non-adherent cite they simply forget to take their meds. 45% of Americans are on medication. 50% of them are non-adherent. Thus shouldn't employers want to lower their healthcare costs by focusing on medication adherence - a very simple problem that costs the US $177 billion annually in lost revenue and unnecesssary healthcare costs? We think so.

Our API is also available to insurers, pharmaceutical companies, social health networks, EAP providers, and pharmacies. As part of our Enlighten Together program, we offer our Express (email only) solution to non-profits that focus on chronic diseases. All of our products and services are outlined on our website, Intelecare.com.

With that bit of promotion, I shall retire to find more information about this devastating pandemic that affects us all somehow. Please visit the NCPIE site, NCPIE Home to read their August report on medication adherence to find more facts and figures - as well as their call to action.

Stay adherent!

Quotes from Heart and Soul Researcher

Here is a little follow-up to my post on 9.17.07 regarding the Heart and Soul Study. Here are some quotes from the researcher Dr Anil K Gehi from Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA. These quotes are from an article on the website theheart.com by Lisa Nainggolan 9.24.07:

"We've shown that simply asking the patient whether they were adherent to their medication is a pretty decent way to identify those patients we might need to focus on," Gehi told heartwire.

"The bottom line is that medication nonadherence is a big predictor of adverse cardiovascular outcomes, and we found that the risk associated with nonadherence was equivalent to that associated with diabetes or smoking. Nonadherence is really a big deal that a lot of physicians don't look at carefully, and it's not a difficult thing to find out."

"We have shown that it's not a difficult thing to find out about adherence, but this is something that perhaps physicians overlook. Our study helps emphasize how important it is; then, something can be done about addressing the specific issues relating to adherence with that patient."

Those who are found to be nonadherent can be targeted with a number of approaches; Gehi suggests such strategies as pillboxes, getting family involved in medication, and arranging more frequent follow-up visits.

"Also, sometimes simply explaining to a patient what a pill is for and the importance of that medication can make a big difference.".

COMMENTS:
Uh, duh? I am greatful that this study was done to show how important medication non-adherence is to the world (also highlighted in the NCPIE study, and the WHO Study, countless articles, and this blog). But again, come on, if you don't take your pills you are not going to be healthy. Plain and Simple.

NCPIE Report

Yes, I have been very late in posting this. I appologize. The NCPIE report that is referenced in many articles around the country and in my last post can be found at http://www.talkaboutrx.com.

Dr. Allan Showalter at Alignmap is always up to date and I cannot express my thoughts about the report better than he at:
http://alignmap.com/category/blog.