Partnership aims to address adherence among hard-to-reach populations

MORRISVILLE, N.C. — Poor medication adherence is a national problem, but it can be particularly problematic among populations with low health literacy or limited English proficiency.



A deal between two companies aims to provide mobile medication adherence services to both groups. Polyglot Systems and CellepathicRx have partnered to use CPRx's mobile health platform to deliver Polyglot's Meducation content to hard-to-reach patients through mobile Web and email technologies and smart phone applications.



"More than 90 million Americans are considered low-health literate or have limited English proficiency," CPRx CEO Greg Muffler said. "Until now, there has not been a good way to deliver medication adherence information to this segment of the patient population. By integrating Meducation into our mHealth platform, we can reach patients with medication adherence information they can understand, on a mobile device that is always with them."



Meducation allows patients and healthcare providers to access medication instructions written to a fifth or sixth grade reading level in more than a dozen, ranging from English and Spanish to simplified and traditional Chinese characters, Korean and Bengali. Large fonts also are available for people with impaired vision, as well as videos to demonstrate medications that may be difficult to use.



"Poor medication adherence has been associated with over 100,000 deaths and $290 billion additional healthcare costs annually," Polyglot CEO Sims Preston said. "Meducation addresses this by providing instructions that are easy to understand. That is only half the battle, though — the instructions must be delivered to patients efficiently and without interruption of provider workflow."

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