Measuring and Supporting Medication Adherence

Mission in a Minute: Jennifer Cocohoba, PharmD
http://profiles.ucsf.edu/jennifer.coc...
http://whp.ucsf.edu

Medications can treat many common conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes, asthma, and high cholesterol. However, as former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Coop once said, "Drugs don't work in people that don't take them." Studies have found that up to 20 percent of patients prescribed a new medicine don't even go to pick it up.

My clinical practice and my research focus on finding best practices for measuring and supporting medication adherence. Adherence is the extent to which patients take and keep taking their medicine regimens. This is not as easy as it sounds:  side effects, lack of knowledge about the disease or medicines, disbelief about medication effectiveness, difficulty accessing medications, and stigma -- all of these factors and other factors can get in the way of one taking their medicines successfully.

As a clinical pharmacist in the UCSF Women's HIV program, I work to educate patients about antiretroviral medications, encourage them to start therapy, and find ways to motivate them to keep taking all of their medicines.  Through my research, I hope to create practical and evidence-based interventions or programs that address the problems that stand in the way of people taking their medicines and improving their health.