Thinking Outside the Pillbox

In its new research brief, "Thinking Outside the Pillbox," NEHI addresses the root causes of poor patient medication adherence - a significant contributor to overall health care waste - and offers promising solutions to improve adherence, particularly among chronic disease patients

"Experts stress that patients not only vary across a continuum of knowledge (their health literacy, their understanding of their disease and so on), they vary across a continuum of willingness and ability to adhere as well. This variability among patients also extends to patients’ proclivity to persist in adherence over time – thus a successful adherence strategy must provide continuity of care and follow-up. The odds that an adherence strategy will be successful are related to how well the strategy can first identify the varying needs of individual patients, and then match services accordingly. An ideal adherence strategy should be patient-centered and holistic taking into account everything from lifestyle to cultural and belief systems."