A report by IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics last year broke down the impact of poor medication adherence in the U.S. A contest to source new ways to address the adherence problem is encouraging collaboration between students training to be healthcare professionals and pharmacists. They are expected to develop ways to improve medication adherence through patient engagement tools across one or all of three chronic conditions: diabetes, respiratory disease and cardiovascular disease.
The Script Your Future challenge by the National Consumers League is concentrating the adherence challenge on a group of cities around the U.S. including Baltimore, Raleigh, Providence, Sacramento, Birmingham and Cincinnati, according to a statement from the group.
The month-long outreach project is getting interdisciplinary student teams from pharmacy, medicine, nursing and other health professions to develop creative approaches to the problem through outreach in their communities to raise awareness and improve understanding about medication adherence.
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At the end of the challenge, schools or colleges will be singled out for national recognition. The challenge is part of Script Your Future, a group formed in 2011. Finalists will be announced in May. Those interested in news about the challenge can follow #SYFchallenge and @IWillTakeMyMeds.
The competition, in its third year, has the backing of pharmacy industry groups such as the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy and the National Community Pharmacists Association as well as the American Medical Association and American Association of Colleges of Nursing.
