Medication Adherence – Every dose, taken regularly at the right time
In clinical trials, new drug compounds can fail to demonstrate therapeutic efficacy due to poor medication adherence. In Phase I trials, doses are given in a controlled facility with witnessed mouth-checks. We know the patient took the medication properly because the dosing is observed. However, in Phase II trials and beyond, patients will carry their medications away from the clinic for at-home dosing, typically in blister packs or bottles.
No witness may mean no confirmation of medication adherence. Will they forget? Will they take too little? Too much? Will they take the medication exactly as instructed?
Achieve higher quality clinical outcomes
Clinical trial managers, investigators, researchers and pharmaceutical sponsors can have better insight into medication adherence. If you take control of compliance, you can improve data analysis and reporting and achieve higher quality clinical outcomes.
Use the Right Tools to Monitor Analyze and Improve Data
Research shows that medication adherence in clinical trials is both poor and highly variable among groups and individual patients.
Only 34 percent of patients take their medications as prescribed. Adherence tools and more robust compliance data collection are areas where we can improve (not just with paper or electronic diaries).
Real-time access to data that confirms whether participants are taking the correct dose, on schedule, helps researchers work with participants to stay on track – or remove them from a study.
The ability to document behaviors, timelines and other data adds credibility to these decisions. More robust medication adherence can be achieved with digital adherence tools versus insufficient self-reporting or simple pill counts.
Manage Dosing for Best Results
Well-designed clinical trials will limit the flexibility around dosing intervals. If trial participants don’t adhere to trial requirements, skip dosages or take medications off schedule, the efficacy data may be compromised.
Medication adherence is critical to support recommendations around accurate dosing. Systems like the CleverCap adherence platform can accurately record the multiple data points required to identify strong or poor adherence.
Data-Driven Efficacy
The ability to monitor medication adherence provides more confidence in efficacy results.
To learn more about this topic and the CleverCap medication adherence platform, check out the medication adherence resource library on CleverCap.org and How poor medication adherence is damaging your clinical trial data and how to fix it, fast.
Article Originally Published By: ClinOps Toolkit
