A new smartphone app has be launched to improve medication adherence. The app uses a system of reward points that can be used to obtain real prizes. The app also uses games and educational facts to improve medication adherence. This new app offers improvement in helping prevent the $290 billion in healthcare spending that is brought about from medication non adherence. The company who invented the app, HealthPrizes, looked at behavioral economics, gaming dynamics, and consumer marketing to help promote their product and its ability to improve medication adherence. The app was recently used in a study with COPD and asthma patients showing high engagement rates.
By improving medication adherence, health problems will most likely be reduced and clinical outcomes improved. There will be less doctor visits and reduced costs for medical visits. Overall this will decrease the amount of unnecessary health care spending. Lastly, if medication adherence improves quality of life improves which is ideally what every patient is looking for from taking medication.
http://medgadget.com/2011/11/healthprize-smartphone-app-for-improving-drug-compliance-released.html
It's sad that it has to come to this, to increase medication adherence, I mean this is only your health we are talking about. I do; however, see great clinical use for this application, especially with the younger crowd who play video games on their phone, Facebook, and home gaming systems. Also, older people will love this because they typically have large amounts of free time; I find my grandmother playing poker on Facebook throughout the day. So, I would like to see this application expand to other platforms; such as, Facebook, because some may not have access to smartphones but do have computer access.
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