Experts on compliance issues estimate that only 50 to 75 percent of all patients take their medication as prescribed. Some of the most serious consequences of noncompliance made news this month at the 12th World AIDS Conference in Geneva, where researchers attributed new, drug-resistant strains of HIV to patients who don t properly follow their complex medication regimens. And the long-term misuse of antibiotics has given rise to forms of previously treatable diseases that are impervious to the most advanced medications. We pay a high price for noncompliance, too. But some patients may need help figuring out what system works best for them.
Some patients rely on electronic keychains that beep when it s time to take another dose.
New paging devices go a step further and flash messages telling patients which pill to pop. And one of the newest devices is a pill bottle that can tell a patient how many times it has been opened that day. Later, when the bottle is connected to a computer, it indicates to practitioners and pharmacists how many times it has been opened in the past month. Noncompliance cuts across all categories of patients and illnesses. People with breast cancer, organ transplants, and hypertension, as well as people on a short course of antibiotics, can all forget to take their medications.