In the UK, it is recognised that up to 50% of people take their prescribed medication incorrectly or not at all.
This could be anything from a missed dose of antibiotics for a chest infection or a transplant patient forgetting to take their anti-rejection drugs – the impact on quality of life and health outcomes can be huge as with the financial implications for our health service.
Adherence in the UK
Non-adherence costs the NHS approximately £3 billion per annum.
The advantage of PAMAN
The only way to prove a dose or course has been taken correctly, consistently, for the entire duration of a trial is for a trained professional to prompt, observe and record each dose interval in real time.
PAMAN is the only system and service able to achieve these key metrics for short, medium and long-term studies.
This means that during a drug trial in the community the safety-net is always there to ensure the best possible health outcome for the patient and the best financial outcome for the manufacturer.
1
Call Schedule
We call at a time arranged with the service user.
2
Video Call:
We observe the Service User take their medication.
3
Important information
We have important information to hand if we should need it.
4
Medication Record
We have the current prescription from which we make sure all the medication is being taken at the correct dose at the correct time. We record all medication taken.
Accuracy of clinical trials
When there are billions of pounds riding on the outcome of trials as well as the future of people’s health, it’s incredible to think that there is very little emphasis put on medication adherence and monitoring throughout the trial process, and, if any steps are taken they are often rudimentary to say the least in terms of accuracy and effectiveness.
This issue of non-adherence or non-compliance potentially skews the accuracy of clinical trials and can mean the difference between the progression and patent of a new drug or it’s early stage demise.
The issue of poor compliance in trial settings becomes even more critical when taking into account outcome-based contracts and payments. Assuming a drug successfully clears all the hurdles of intensive testing and scrutiny to reach the finishing line successfully, it can then be undervalued based on inaccurate outcomes and skewing of data. On the other side of the coin, drugs could be approved which are, in reality, far less effective or more harmful, than perhaps trial data suggests.
With so much riding on test patients taking drugs as intended, simply counting returned tablets, blood testing, recording and checking a patient diary or even electronically tracking when a medicine bottle or blister card has been opened does NOT give a true picture of compliance.