Next 'Killer App' To Cut Health Care Costs: Getting Patients To Take Their Meds
The Next 'Killer App' To Cut Health Care Costs: Getting Patients To Take Their Meds
Billions of dollars in venture capital is being poured into new innovations to improve health care. Devices remotely monitor patient health; smart phone apps help patients manage their exercise and schedule appointments with their doctors; and ‘Big data’ applications identify patients with elevated risks of hospital re-admissions, or other potentially preventable outcomes.
Yet, despite these advances, a vexing problem that has persisted since the days of Hippocrates remains to be cracked: how to get patients to take their medications as directed.
New evidence suggests that helping patients take their medications more consistently as directed may be instrumental in lowering health care costs, while simultaneously improving patient outcomes.
by Aaron McKethan, senior vice president of strategy at RxAnte and a visiting scholar at the Brookings Institution.
