Home // IARIA Congress 2024, The 2024 IARIA Annual Congress on Frontiers in Science, Technology, Services, and Applications // View article
Authors:
Ben Malin
Joshua Hinton
Ejike Nwokoro
Tatiana Kalganova
Keywords: medication adherence; healthcare; homecare; communication; engagement; digital health.
Abstract:
Communications between a patient and their health service provider are essential in ensuring sustained engagement and achievement of optimal clinical outcomes. To generate valuable insight on how to optimize interactions with patients, and to preserve both adherence and patient satisfaction, this study analyses different patient-provider communication modalities, user preferences, and medication adherence across a range of covariates. To evaluate how patient-provider communications relate with these covariates, and to adherence, we identify which Channel of Communication (CoC) is used by the patient to confirm every medication delivery. This is used to display preference as well as how successful each CoC is. In this study, we define adherence as the Percentage of Days Covered (PDC) by medication stock. Three CoCs are covered in this study: phone calls, email, and portal (a web platform), all of which enable the user to confirm medication deliveries, enabling them to have the required medication stock, in alignment with their doctor’s prescription. Through this analysis, we find that each CoC has a significant influence on medication adherence, with portal users having relatively better adherence for any given month (PDC reduction of 6.7-6.8% for phone users, compared to portal users). Additionally, the use of the portal increases by 4.7% month on month, whilst phone call use decreases by 4.6%. We opine that the impact seen in portal usage is due to patients growing in familiarity with digital health solutions, as well as the benefit attained via digital health means. Furthermore, this study shows that patients who are consistent with their preferred CoC attain greater adherence than those with inconsistent CoCs. In any given month, patients who continue to use a CoC that was an initially stated preference typically have a PDC 6.1-6.3% greater than their counterparts with inconsistent CoC preferences. The insights gained around the temporal nature of patient behavior and communication preferences will allow for their health service providers to better support their patients, with dynamic and tailored interventions. Such tailored services are consequently better positioned to improve adherence, patient outcomes and satisfaction.
Pages: 13 to 23
Copyright: Copyright (c) IARIA, 2024
Publication date: June 30, 2024
Published in: conference
ISBN: 978-1-68558-180-0
Location: Porto, Portugal
Dates: from June 30, 2024 to July 4, 2024