NIH funds study on patient comliance

ATLANTA PharmaCentra, a marketing and services firm that provides customizable healthcare management programs for the pharmaceutical industry, the Rollins School of Public Health, and the Department of Ophthalmology at the School of Medicine at Emory University will conduct a study of new technology to increase patient adherence to prescribed treatment regimens.

The study, which be funded by the National Institutes of Health’s National Eye Institute will test the effectiveness of the WellTouch system, which will provide glaucoma patients with telephone and print messages to increase treatment.

“Our goal is to identify the causes of patients’ noncompliance with glaucoma treatment and then to provide an individually tailored, low cost and effective intervention to improve compliance,” said Dr. Karen Glanz, principal investigator on the project and professor at the Rollins School of Public Health.

Almost 30 percent of all patients stop taking prescribed medication within the first three months of treatment. The problem for glaucoma patients is that if they stop taking the medication, they are at a high risk to become blind.

250 people will be taking part in the study over an 18-month period.