THE PROBLEM
"Pharmaceutical noncompliance [failure to take medication as prescribed, or failure to take medication in a timely manner] is a significant problem in the United States that drains an estimated $100 billion from the national economy every year, and is blamed for the deaths of over 125,000 Americans annually (342 people every day). Ten percent of all hospital admissions are the result of pharmaceutical noncompliance, and 23% of all nursing home admissions are due to patients' inability to take medication as prescribed."
--Healthcare Compliance Packaging Council
The World Health Organization called noncompliance a "worldwide problem of striking magnitude." It is estimated that in developed nations, half of patients did not take medicines for chronic diseases in the prescribed manner.
Noncompliance with drug therapy has been identified as one of the largest challenges facing the medical and pharmaceutical communities, as they attempt to enhance the management of chronic conditions that consume the bulk of healthcare expenditures.
The government, medical community, HMO and insurance communities are looking for a product that will:
1) Greatly assist patients to overcome noncompliance while taking prescription drugs; and 2) Reduce expensive hospital stays and insurance claims, and promote improved patient health.
It is quite common for patients to forget to take their medication or to forget that they already took it and therefore take additional meds. Either way, the concentration of drug in the body is altered and therefore the medication's effectiveness is diminished.
Both under dosing and overdosing are problematic, and The National Council on Patient Information and Education believes medication misuse is the nation's "other" drug problem.
