"A Randomized, Controlled, Evaluator-blinded Pilot Study to Evaluate the Effect of Automated Text Message Reminders on Patient Compliance With Topical Medications and Its Efficacy on Skin Disease Control in Adolescents and Adults With Mild to Moderate Acne"
Condition: Acne; Patient Compliance
MeSH terms: Skin Diseases
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      The purpose of this study is to determine whether an automated electronic reminder system
      using text messages sent to patient's cell phones will help patients with acne be more
      compliant with their topical medications and lead to an improvement of their acne.

      Hypothesis: Automatically delivered electronic reminders in the form of text messages will
      increase acne patient adherence to topical medications and consequently result in better
      treatment outcome and higher patient satisfaction
    

Detailed description: 
      Patient non-compliance with topical medication use is a significant determinant of treatment
      failure resulting in both patient and physician frustration with outcome and leading to
      suboptimal medical care. It is important to address ways to improve patient compliance both
      from a medical and economic standpoint, as adequate use of medications could lead to a
      reduction of unnecessary office visits and a more cost-effective use of prescribed
      medications.

      Patients with mild to moderate acne will be prescribed a standard treatment regimen with
      clindamycin/benzoyl peroxide gel in the mornings and adapalene gel in the evenings. Half of
      the subjects will then be randomly assigned to receive customized text messages instructing
      them twice a day to apply their morning and evening cream as prescribed, with the remainder
      of subjects serving as controls. Each medication tube supplied to every subject will be
      fitted with an electronic Medication Event Monitoring System cap (MEMS cap) which has the
      ability to record the date and time of every opening/closing of the tube. This data will
      serve as an objective measure of medication use and will be used to determine whether the
      reminder messages resulted in a higher and more consistent use of the prescribed medications.

      Specific Aims:

      The primary aim of the study is to determine whether automated text messages produce
      increased adherence with medication use in the Reminder group compared to the Control group
      over the 12 week study duration.

      Improvement in acne will be measured using full face lesion counts, Investigator Global
      Assessment Score (IGA) and subject Global Assessment Score (SGA). Quality of life and
      satisfaction will be measured using the Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI), and patient
      satisfaction surveys.
    

Intervention name(s): Text message reminders
Intervention type(s): Other
Intervention description(s): Subjects in this arm will receive twice daily automated text messages reminding them to apply their medications.
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: Single (Investigator)
Primary purpose: Other