GSC & MEMOTEXT pilot: Text messages help with medication adherence

MEMOTEXT

Green Shield Canada (GSC) and MEMOTEXT have released “The Importance of Sticking to it” whitepaper with data from their 2014 Stick2It medication adherence pilot.

The conclusion was that a personalized digital health intervention can improve adherence for hypertension and high cholesterol patients, providing value to all parties, including the participant, the health benefits provider, and the plan sponsor.

The most common reason for people’s non-adherence is that they simply forgot.“The most expensive trend in medication is the growing cost of drugs to treat chronic conditions. But despite this, adherence to chronic disease medication is actually quite low,” David Willows, vice president of Strategic Market Solutions at Green Shield Canada, said in a statement. “In Stick2It we saw an opportunity to increase the medication adherence of our plan members, both improving their health and reducing their plan’s spending.”

The Stick2it program was made available to any GSC plan member between the ages of 25 and 64 who was recently diagnosed with high cholesterol or hypertension, and was just starting a new drug therapy. Trial participants received medication reminders on their mobile phones, along with messages about their illness, advice on diet, exercise, and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. First they filled-in questionnaires, and from there the MEMOTEXT Personologic Algorithm created a customized messaging and reminder program for each participant.

Stick2It’s intervention raised participants’ hypertension and high-cholesterol medication adherence across the board. The non-adherent and the “vigilant” cohorts of participants saw an increase in adherence, compared to the control group.

In addition, the pilot revealed that even though most participants (99%) chose to sign up for the Stick2It program online, the preferred method for the reminder messages was text, not phone or email. Finally, the data shows that the most common reason for people’s non-adherence is that they simply forgot.