• The reasons for non-adherence to a medical treatment include inadequate knowledge of the treatment, misunderstanding of prescriptions, forgetfulness, and lack of social support during the period of illness
• Customer adherence apps will help patients to overcome the above-mentioned factors and make the patient more adherent to their medication schedule
• Customer adherence apps are mainly developed for Apple, Android and BlackBerry operating systems:
–– More apps are developed for the Android operating system
–– The Apple operating system has apps with more advanced features than the other two operating systems
–– Many apps are expected to be developed in the future, until the market consolidates with a few apps that have the majority of market share
–– With a large number of benefits associated with the app, it is expected to be adopted widely in the regions with high smartphone penetration and good Internet connectivity
• The commonly adopted adherence techniques can be grouped under five categories based on the objective. The objective of the app may be to:
–– Remind the patient about their medication in a timely and unobtrusive manner
–– Counsel patients who often miss their medication to find the root cause for non-adherence and fix it
–– Reinforce the need to follow a proper medication schedule
–– Educate patients about their disease and the drugs, and more importantly, the side-effects if proper medication is not followed
–– Simplify the dosages, so that a patient is not confused about the drug pattern
• The various adherence techniques can be adopted easily through mobile applications:
–– For example, Patient Partner is a mobile app that educates patients about clinical outcomes, if they are not adhering to a medication schedule
–– Vera, an app from Reflection Health, improves patient adherence to their physical therapy exercises
• Apps can also integrate gamification techniques, which will create more interest among patients for following the medication schedule properly:
–– Cohero is a medication app that automatically tracks medications with sensors and rewards patients for proper medication in a gamified interface