Document Type

Working Paper

Rights

Available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike 4.0 International Licence

Disciplines

3.3 HEALTH SCIENCES, Business and Management.

Publication Details

ARCH – Applied Research for Connected Health an Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland Technology Centre , white paper.

Abstract

Medication adherence relates to the concept of compliance to a medicine regimen and is defined as ‘the extent to which a patient acts in accordance with the prescribed interval and dose of a dosing regimen’ (Cramer et al., 2008). Often desired health outcomes are not achieved due to patients, not taking their prescribed medication or taking them incompletely or inconsistently (Miller et al., 1997). This results in higher negative health outcomes and increasing cost of care and is therefore a growing global concern. Tackling the problem of non-adherence requires a collaborative, patient-centric approach and can be guided by modern technologies that offer efficient ways to managing healthcare (Williams et al., 2014). Over the last two decades, the internet has revamped the way information is accessed and mobile devices have taken this a step further by allowing users to access any and every information they want at their fingertips. The availability of over one and a half million applications or apps for download endorses the growing interest in the technology (Bexley et al., 2010). Mobile apps can provide an opportunity for both the healthcare professional and the patient to access user-friendly ways of accessing important medical information quickly, for improving patient health and advancing support and care (Choi et al. 2015; Miller et al., 1997). According to the eMarketer1, 2014, about 58.2% of the global population was using mobile phones in 2012; this percentage increased to 61.1% in 2013 and is further expected to increase to 69.4% of the world’s population by 2017. As of April 2014, 62% of smartphone users have searched for health information using their devices. Evidently, mobile is rapidly becoming the preferred consumer channel for communication including health services. Mobile-HealthNews.com2 highlights that the Apple App Store already has about 6,000 mobile health related apps, indicating consumers’ interest in a more active role in their own health management.

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