Script Your Future campaign pushes importance of adherence


PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The National Consumers League recently launched the Script Your Future initiative to raise awareness among patients about the impact of not taking their medications as prescribed, and now the first-of-its-kind campaign is kicking off in several markets around the country.


Script Your Future is an important initiative, as 3-out-of-4 Americans fail to take their medications as prescribed by their doctors. This equates to an estimated $290 billion drain on the U.S. healthcare system each year — costs that are avoidable.


Given the alarming numbers, medication adherence has become part of the U.S. Surgeon General’s Prevention Focus, and U.S. surgeon general Dr. Regina Benjamin helped kick off the campaign on May 11 at The George Washington University Hospital.


Script Your Future aims to educate patients and offer tools to help them better adhere. Tools include free text message reminders, sample questions, medication lists, condition management sheets and fact sheets on common chronic conditions. Six regional city markets — Providence, R.I.; Baltimore; Birmingham, Ala.; Cincinnati; Raleigh, N.C.; and Sacramento, Calif. — are piloting activities, research and advertising.


Events to date included: Elizabeth Rogers, lieutenant governor of Rhode Island, joined with the National Consumers League to launch the campaign in Providence on May 23. CVS Caremark, a national partner in the campaign, is headquartered in Rhode Island and participated in the launch. On June 7, the National Consumers League and lieutenant governor Walter Dalton gathered in Raleigh, N.C., for a launch event held at Kerr Drug, a campaign partner. And in Cincinnati, Dr. Daniel Acosta, dean of the College of Pharmacy at the University of Cincinnati, and city council member Wendell Young helped kick off local Script Your Future efforts on May 18 at the CARE-Crawley Building, University of Cincinnati Academic Health Center.