How Digital Medication Reminders Can Help Your Patients Stay on Track

We live in a world where alarm clocks, paper maps, and phone books have all been replaced by our smartphone. Luckily, our smartphones can help solve one of the most intractable problems in medicine—non-adherence—and can improve health outcomes at the same time by reminding us to take daily prescribed medications. Discover how digital medication reminders can help your patients stay on track with the medication regimens you’ve already prescribed.

What are digital medication reminders?

The most effective way for patients to improve their treatment for a chronic condition is to stay compliant with the medication you’ve prescribed. Yet, according to the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA), patients only take their medication as prescribed about half the time. In fact, one physician tells us, tongue in cheek, that “half my patients take half of their medication, half of the time.” While there are various reasons why your patients might not adhere to their prescribed regimen, one of the most common culprits is forgetfulness.  Regular and recurrent digital medication reminders aim to mitigate the risk of those missed doses by directly prompting the person when it’s time to take their medication.

How do digital medication reminders work?

There are many different types of digital medication reminders, but the most advanced versions require the use of a smartphone and a dedicated application. Because most people keep their smartphones with them throughout the day, phone-based reminders are often more effective than timers, in-home electronic devices, or portable clocks. An app like PainScript allows providers to alert patients with medication reminders at designated times of day, according to their plan of care. Patients can also receive additional instructions, guides, and other resources to help them follow their medication regimen more successfully. 

Do digital medication reminders help patients improve medication adherence?

There has been a litany of studies on the efficacy of digital medication reminders, with most results indicating that this technology does, in fact, improve medication adherence. One article published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association summarized a comprehensive effort in which researchers reviewed 13 different studies “to examine the effectiveness of interventions using electronic reminders in improving patients’ adherence to chronic medication.”

That analysis found eight studies showing significant effects on patients’ adherence, especially when text messaging was deployed. Other studies have lauded the use of digital medication reminders—making note of benefits like portability, simplicity and efficacy—while also noting that “electronic medication reminders should lead to improvements in medication adherence in self care settings.”

The technology that powers PainScript has also been validated by nine peer-reviewed and published studies that in almost every instance were also cofunded by either the National Institute for Health (NIH) or the National Institute for Mental Health (NIMH).

Overall, these studies found that the PainScript technological backbone provided clinically significant and meaningful medication and/or care plan adherence across multiple different chronic diseases, in varied patient populations.  The PainScript approach demonstrated clinically significant improvements regardless of patient age, education, socioeconomic background or time on therapy. In some cases, such as a research study with schizophrenia patients, the technology behind PainScript improved medication adherence from a typical baseline of 50% to 95% during the three-year trial. Other studies found our technology improved medication adherence for health challenges such as congestive heart failure, diabetes, HIV, and psychiatric conditions.  

Digital medication reminders as part of an overall digital healthcare strategy

Digital technology not only provides patients with the opportunity to improve their medication adherence but also provides a gateway that better connects patients and providers. When used properly, digital medication reminders can serve as one component of an overarching digital healthcare strategy that brings patients and physicians together. Smartphone technology, patient monitoring apps, and medication reminders can all be combined to deliver more personalized medicine that can greatly improve patient outcomes. ‍

PainScript provides digital medication reminders and medication monitoring

PainScript offers providers a digital platform that includes digital medication reminders and medication monitoring for patients. Our solution enables chronic pain or substance use disorder patients to connect with your practice daily, delivering detailed data on their care plan adherence to a HIPAA-compliant clinical dashboard. This type of collaborative approach works for patients who want a more personalized approach, more timely interventions, and more improved outcomes.