Proven Effects of On-Going Automated Digital Intervention's (ADI) Capabilities to Positively Impact Health Outcomes

Background:  In the United States, chronic diseases account for $3 of every $4 spent on healthcare and account for 7 of every 10 deaths in America costing Americans over a trillion dollars a year in healthcare costs.  In addition, an estimated 133 million Americans or almost one out of every two adults has at least one chronic illness (i.e. diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, mental illness, etc.) an alarming percentage has co-morbidities.  As a result, there is an urgent need to improve provider to patient communications that enhance education, motivation and behavioral change. The Affordable Care Act combined with changing reimbursement models are encouraging millions of more Americans to take preventive health care steps. This will continue to increase the strain on a healthcare system that already has a shortage of Primary Care Physicians and others qualified to provide preventive healthcare services. PCPs currently spend under 2 minutes per disease state on education. New technologies can and must be more effectively leveraged to provide ongoing education and motivation necessary to improve outcomes. Automated Digital Intervention (ADI) facilitates provider to patient communication in the channel of choice, and language of choice with the content and frequency to address the patients’ specific disease state and obstacles to adherence. 

Program background:  Adoption of such effective communications will result in patients increased ability to maintain healthier lives through behavioral change programs, chronic disease management, and medication adherence regimens.  In an effort to demonstrate improved outcomes through the deployment of ADI PrescribeWellness partnered with leading local pharmacists in the greater Los Angeles area in the early development to create a supplemental Motivational Messaging Intervention (MMI) to be used with their effective patient-centered Medication Therapy Management (MTM) sessions.  This proprietary first generational MTM/MMI template, aimed to increase medication adherence through the pharmacies “front line” intervention process sends out the appropriate motivational, behavioral, and educational messages through timely and relevant communications using the Voice of Authority (VOA). 

Evaluation Methods and Results:  The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine factors determining the effectiveness of PrescribeWellness’ MMI communications to increase patient medication adherence.  This research examined whether a relationship exists between PrescribeWellness’ MTM/MMI intervention and medication adherence.  The relationship between variables was examined by implementing descriptive statistics and Chi-squared analysis.  Pharmacy patients were taken through a standard MTM/MMI session along with the subsequent voice messaging for 90 days.  Results showed there was a significant relationship between PrescribeWellness’ MTM/MMI intervention and an increase in patient medication adherence as medication adherence rates increased from 66.7% to 85.7%.  Additional findings showed there was statistical significance in adherence rates for those patients with chronic conditions of Cholesterol (60% to 93.3%), Hypertension (76.2% to 90.5%) and Diabetes (47.6% to 57.1%). 

Conclusions:  As a result, PrescribeWellness has continued to expand its unique communication capabilities to leverage a wide variety of delivery methods to meet the requirements and preferences of individual patients.  

Implications for research and/or practice: This communication solution is designed to empower patients by providing them with facts they need to make informed decisions about their health while improving their overall health care experience.