Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
Proportion of days covered (PDC) is the most widely endorsed measure of medication adherence. For instance, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) uses PDC as its preferred adherence measure for its Quality Rating System for many chronic conditions (e.g., hypertension, diabetes, and hyperlipidemia). However, your PDC measure may be flawed depending on what…
This is the paraphrased title of a paper by Fusco et al. (2023). The authors conduct a systematic literature review of studies published between 2010 and 2020 and find that among the 79 articles screened: The majority of publications found that, regardless of disease area, increased cost-sharing was associated with worse adherence, persistence, or discontinuation.…
Let’s say you are studying patients taking Drug A for Disease X. Further assume that you want to identify predictors that a patient is adherent to Drug A. Using health insurance claims data, you define your outcome–medication adherence–as whether the patient had proportion of days covered (PDC) is greater than or equal to 80%, the…
Not a surprising finding but an important one nonetheless. Using data from the 2013–17 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) a paper by Gaffney et al. (2020) finds: Although people with VHA [Veterans Health Administration] coverage were older and in worse health and had lower incomes than those with other coverage, VHA patients had lower rates…
This is the topic of a recent publication with co-authors Kata Bognar, Katie Everson, Michelle Brauer, Darius Lakdawalla and Felicia Forma. The full title is Does knowledge of patient non-compliance change prescribing behavior in the real world? A claims-based analysis of patients with serious mental illness. The abstract is below, but do read the whole thing…
Please check out my recent paper titled “Medication Adherence Patterns Among Patients with Multiple Serious Mental and Physical Illnesses” with co-authors Joanna P. MacEwan, Alison R. Silverstein, Darius N. Lakdawalla, Ainslie Hatch and Felicia M. Forma in Advances in Health. This study is unique because it looks at medication adherence patterns among patients with…
Below is the abstract for my most recent publication titled “Access to credible information on schizophrenia patients’ medication adherence by prescribers can change their treatment strategies: evidence from an online survey of providers“. It is work with Suepattra G May, Anshu Shrestha, Charles Ruetsch, Nicole Gerlanc, Felicia Forma, Ainslie Hatch, Darius N Lakdawalla, and Jean-Pierre Lindenmayer.…
A study titled “Patterns of Adherence to Oral Atypical Antipsychotics Among Patients Diagnosed with Schizophrenia” was just published in the November edition of JMCP. This is work with co-authors Joanna P. MacEwan, Felicia M. Forma, Jason Shafrin, Ainslie Hatch, Darius N. Lakdawalla, Jean-Pierre Lindenmayer. The abstract is below. Go check it out! BACKGROUND: Poor medication adherence…
A study titled “Estimating the Value of New Technologies That Provide More Accurate Drug Adherence Information to Providers for Their Patients with Schizophrenia” was just published in the November edition of JMCP. This is work with co-authors Taylor T. Schwartz, Darius N. Lakdawalla, and Felicia M. Forma. The abstract is below. Go check it out! …
According to a recent study of patients with hypertension, the answer is yes. The study by Kronish et al. (2016) used a cluster randomized trial design made up of 24 providers and 100 patients. Half of the providers were randomized to receive received a report summarizing electronically measured patient adherence to their blood pressure regimen as well as and recommended clinical to…