CarePath

Thanks to advances in research, many chronic diseases can now be managed with medication. However, studies show that around half of all people living with a chronic disease do not take their prescribed medication for more than a year. There are many reasons for this, including a lack of patient support, social barriers such as the stigma associated with certain illnesses, and financial barriers.

The aim of CarePath is to deliver a ‘plug and play’ toolbox with resources to boost both adherence (i.e. the extent to which patients take their medication as prescribed in terms of timing, dosage and frequency) and persistence (i.e. the length of time between the start of treatment and the last dose before stopping treatment).

CarePath will focus on three common chronic conditions (obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases) and on both primary care settings (e.g. general practitioners and community pharmacists) and secondary care (including hospitals, outpatient clinics and other specialised care facilities).

As a first step, the project team will gather details of existing interventions to boost adherence and persistence, along with information on what interventions work for which patients in different situations. The project will also gather input from key stakeholders, including patients and healthcare providers, on what they need from these kinds of tools.

All of this will feed into a CarePath toolbox comprising both technological and social innovation strategies to enhance adherence and persistency and to build capacity for healthcare stakeholders. The toolbox will include mobile applications to empower patients and improve their interactions with healthcare providers. It will also support the use of patient-reported outcome and experience measures (PROMs and PREMs). Short questionnaires will facilitate the early detection of signs of low adherence, allowing rapid intervention. The ‘plug and play’ nature of the toolbox means it can easily be adapted to different healthcare settings and countries.

The team will test the toolbox in pilot studies in six European countries: Germany, Israel, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, and Sweden. These countries were selected as the are geographically diverse and their populations have different levels of disease, social determinants of health and other factors. In addition, a proof-of-concept study will be carried out in people with type 2 diabetes treated at out-patient clinics in Germany.

Ultimately, the project hopes that its toolbox will provide patients with personalised support that will help them improve medication adherence and persistence. This will in turn contribute to better health outcomes, an enhanced quality of life, and lower healthcare costs.