CareSpeak’s System Effective in Improving Medication Adherence with Patients Recovering from Heart Attack and Stent Implant
Somerset, NJ (PRWEB) November 25, 2013 -- Researchers at San Francisco VA Medical Center found that patients recovering from heart attack and/or stent placement took more of their medicines as prescribed when they received regular text messages reminding them to do so. Patients receiving the text reminders from CareSpeak’s system were 16 percent to 17 percent better at taking their antiplatelet (blood thinning/anti-clotting) medicines at the right time and in the correct dosage. Linda Park, a post-doctoral fellow at the San Francisco VA Medical Center, presented study results at the annual meeting of the American Heart Association in Dallas on November 17, 2013. (http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/News/Global/SimpleScience/Text-reminders-helped-people-take-their-heart-medicines-regularly_UCM_458365_Article.jsp)
Patients participating in the study were signed up for the intervention at or within a few days after hospital discharge. A total of 90 heart patients, averaging 59 years of age, received the intervention for 30 days. All of the patients had a cardiac stent placed to open a clogged vessel, and the majority of them had suffered a heart attack prior to their hospitalization.
The 90 patients were divided into three groups. The first group received two medication reminder texts every day, as well as an educational text message with general heart-health tips three times a week. The second group received educational messages only, and the last group (the "control" group) received no texts at all. Patients receiving a medication reminder were asked to text back a code to confirm medication intake. All study participants’ medication use was tracked with digital pill bottles that keep a record of when they are being opened.
The study showed that patients who received either type of text message were more adherent to their medication regimen than those who received no communication. The study also showed that patients that were asked to confirm medication intake by texting back a confirmation code had much higher satisfaction scores.
The team used CareSpeak’s mobile health manager system to deliver the messages to the patients and to process their responses. "CareSpeak is a really easy system to use, and could be of particular help targeting high-risk populations who have frequent readmissions and may suffer life-threatening complications if they don't take their medications," Park said. CareSpeak’s web-based system allowed researchers to enter each patients' contact information, set reminders to go out at specific times, and customize the content of each text to the specific patient.
“This was a very important project for CareSpeak as it gave us the opportunity to re-confirm our system’s capabilities and effectiveness with this patient population. Over half a million PCI (stent procedures) procedures are done each year and it’s crucial these patients take their medication as prescribed to increase the chances of positive outcomes.”
CareSpeak offers programs for managing many other diseases such as diabetes, multiple sclerosis, cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, organ transplants, asthma and others. CareSpeak’s platform also demonstrated positive outcomes with pediatric liver transplant patients and the results were published in the November 2009 issue of Pediatrics.
About CareSpeak Communications
CareSpeak Communications is the creator of the mobile Health manager™, a HIPAA compliant patient engagement, medical therapy adherence, and care coordination platform. It is used by clinicians at some of the nations leading medical enters such as NYU Langone Medical Center, Joslin Diabetes Center at Harvard Medical School, Columbia University Medical Center, Phoenix Children’s Hospital and Texas Children’s Hospital. CareSpeak Communications is a privately held company, headquartered in Somerset, New Jersey. Visit http://www.carespeak.com for more information.
Serge Loncar, CareSpeak Communications, http://www.carespeak.com, +1 (646) 504-2273, [email protected]
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