New Study Shows Interactive Diary App can be Employed in Clinical Practice to Monitor Adherence for Women with Epilepsy
Boston, Mass. (PRWEB) November 17, 2016 -- Mobile health technology leader, Irody, today announced the results of a study that showed electronic diaries or journal apps can be useful in clinical settings for enhanced patient and medication management. The study also highlights advantages of electronic tracking over traditional assessment methods of adherence.
The study, “Medication adherence in women with epilepsy who are planning pregnancy,” which was published recently in the peer-reviewed journal, Epilepsia, was designed to evaluate the utility of electronic diary apps for tracking of medication adherence for women who have epilepsy and are trying to achieve pregnancy. This is important because in managing epilepsy it is important for the doctor to know how patients are actually using their medications.
The controlled, multi-center observational study was conducted by New York University Langone Epilepsy Center, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and Brigham and Women's Hospital, over the course of three-and-a-half years.
“This strong collaboration of key stakeholders shows that there is significant potential for using digital technology for improving clinical efficiencies related to tracking patient compliance, and, as a result, for improving patient outcomes,” said Eyal Bartfeld, DMD, PhD, CEO of Irody and one of the authors of the study. “The results of this study illustrate how we can use technology to transform clinical care, the patient experience and — ultimately, patient outcomes — in the new value-based health care environment.”
According to the article, participants in the study used the EpiDiary, an electronic diary mobile app, to record medication use, seizure activity, the use of other non-epileptic medications, menstrual cycles and sexual activity, as well as ongoing self-management and support activities. The study followed 86 women with epilepsy from their date of enrollment in the study until their date of delivery, or up to 12 months, if pregnancy was not achieved.
“Monitoring of medication adherence presents a tremendous challenge to clinicians and to clinical researchers” said Jacqueline French MD, professor, New York University Comprehensive Epilepsy Center, and senior author on the study. “Poor adherence has been shown to negatively impact health care spending by resulting in more emergency room visits and hospitalizations, and may result in incomplete seizure control and increased risk of sudden death. Many times, patients do not report to their doctor about missed medication doses. This information could be used to discuss and improve compliance.”
Highlights from the study include the following data points:
• Seventy-five percent of women were compliant with the electronic diary, tracking medication use on more than 80 percent of days; these women were included in adherence analysis.
• Diary-compliant women reported high rates of medication adherence (97.71 percent), higher than previously reported 75 percent adherence rate in historical epilepsy trials.
• Subjects who tracked both AEDs and non-epilepsy medications reported a higher rate of adherence with AEDs than with other medications.
The increased compliance seen by patients who used the electronic diary suggests that it may be useful to track medication adherence in future studies and in clinical settings. Study authors suggest that outcomes may be driven in part by the daily reminders and real-time feedback that is provided by the electronic diary, which facilitates compliance and long-term engagement.
About Irody
Based in Boston, Mass., Irody was founded by a group of scientists, technology leaders and entrepreneurs with expertise in computer vision and signal processing, medicine, epidemiology and medical informatics. The company’s proprietary pill recognition technology is the basis for solutions like mobile patient diaries such as EpiDiary. Irody’s cloud and mobile apps are currently in use in several clinical trials and by more than 30 academic institutions in the United States, Canada, Europe and Australia. Data from EpiDiary has been used for multiple peer-reviewed publications.
To learn more, visit http://www.irody.com.
Barbara Tabor, tabor PR, +1 651-230-9192, [email protected]
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