The Top Apps for Medication Adherence
Medication adherence interventions can address many of the barriers to non-adherence. They can include care coordination between doctors and pharmacists to target and assist patients who have trouble following their regimens. They can assist patients in obtaining the lowest-possible cost medications. And all of this can be coordinated by Lark.
There are some limitations to traditional medication adherence programs.
They can be costly due to the live human interaction and cost of paying pharmacists and doctors or nurses for extra time.
Not all members of the patient support team can be available 24/7. What happens if the patient needs a nudge on the weekend or evenings?
The patient may feel some embarrassment at asking for help or admitting that a dose has been missed.
Apps & Tools for Medication Adherence
There are abundant medication adherence tools that can improve adherence rates among patients, but Lark stands out for it's effectiveness and "whole person" approach to care. Some other innovative strategies are:
Automatically sending pre-sorted pills to patients every week or two.
Automatically detecting a patient’s pill ingestion via an ingestible sensor.
Learning patients’ habits through digital interactions.
Using wearables that easily allow for patients to record when they take their medications.
Medication adherence apps show promise as low-cost, effective solutions that are easy for patients to use. Features can include:
Reminders to take medications and order refills.
Tracking dose history.
Notifications for caregivers or providers if users do not login to the app.
The Lark health coach can assist with adherence to the medication regimen in a number of ways.
Connecting to claims data to monitor patients and segment them by risk;
Reminding patients to take their medications: when and how much.
Monitoring patients' at-home connected device readings and physical activity trends automatically to watch for outliers and correlations.
Connecting patients to healthcare providers when needed.
Educating patients on the importance of medication adherence.
Tracking patient adherence so patients can see how well they have been following doctor’s orders.
In addition, Lark provides coaching to encourage healthy behaviors, including weight management, nutritious eating, getting active, and getting enough sleep. These behaviors can all support general well-being as well as increase patient self-efficacy in taking charge of health and staying adherent to medications to stay as healthy as possible.
