Comments on The Five Rights: The Last Touch...

Thanks to all of you for posting your comments and...

2009-08-26T14:06:59.595-07:00

Thanks to all of you for posting your comments and solutions. The problem of medication non adherence is HUGE and a single approach to solving it will not work. The technological solutions presented by Alex and Peter are wonderful, innovative examples. A big push of mine is facilitating the communication between the pharmacist (a patient's "medication caregiver") and the patient. The more complicated the care, the more important this communication is.

~charles

Medication compliance is a tremendously important ...

2009-08-22T23:11:54.613-07:00

Medication compliance is a tremendously important topic. Here is an interesting approach to using two different technologies -- paper-based and telephone-based -- to solve the age-old behavioral problem of "taking your meds." http://bit.ly/2ym1XS

A "Family Pharmacist" is a great idea! H...

2009-08-20T10:35:10.886-07:00

A "Family Pharmacist" is a great idea! Here at RememebrItNow! we are also shocked by the cost of medication noncompliance. It is one of the reasons why we started our text-message medication reminder service.

RememberItNow! was developed by our founder Pam Swingley to help Pam’s father manage his Glaucoma treatments, medications and retain his independence.

It addresses a need many face—remembering to take medication, and taking it correctly.

RememberItNow! users can:

*Set up medication and event reminders sent via email or text message (reminders are not an extra charge), they are received under the user’s current text messaging plan.

*Create a private care community to enable care coordination, long-distance care giving, and more.

*Simplify health care with more health tools like a health journal, health statistics charts, website bookmarks, calendar sharing, medication reports and contact management.

We hope our service helps others take control of their health or the health care of someone they love.

Watch our story here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tFYe-0hKYY

For more information visit us here:http://www.rememberitnow.com/

Great points Charles. I think we see this some of ...

2009-08-20T07:45:04.591-07:00

Great points Charles. I think we see this some of these trends because the general public does not fully understand the pharmacists role in our health care. There have been some disturbing trends in pharmacy in general: drug commercials, drive-thru pharmacies, and now coupons for prescriptions to get your business. The whole field has turned prescription drugs into a commodity, like buying bread at the grocery store.

This brings me to the point of health literacy in this country. I've seen different health literacy rates reported in different places, but it's fairly low. People have trouble following basic medication instructions as a result.

What people need to understand is the pharmacist is the drug expert in their health care. In reality, they should have a family pharmacists just like they have a family doctor. I would like to think having a close relationship with your pharmacist would avoid lower the amount of non-adherence that is seen. But it will take big changes in how retail pharmacy is run to get away from the "pill factory" mentality of the general public.

Good article. I was impressed to read such article...

2009-08-20T01:14:20.242-07:00

Good article. I was impressed to read such article.