Let's get meds together

Daily meds all packaged into single blister packs seem like they could take a lot of the burden off of patients. As pharmaceutical companies become more focused on specific therapeutic areas, I can see a day where this service is offered free for branded medications to beat out generics.

The study focused on elderly patients who were taking multiple medications and therefore were at risk for poor adherence. The educational component included intensive and frequent counseling by a pharmacist. The structural component involved packaging of medications in blister packs that contained each patient's daily medications.

After 6 months of the intervention, the percentage of patients classified as adherent increased significantly, from 61.2% at baseline to 96.9%, with associated modest reductions in systolic blood pressure and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol. Six months after randomization, high adherence persisted (95.5%) in patients assigned to continuing counseling and the blister packs, whereas those in the usual care group (ie, had the pharmacy care intervention removed) had substantial declines in medication adherence (69.1% at the end of 6 months). There were statistically significant but modest reductions in systolic blood pressure in the pharmacy care group compared with the control group, but no significant differences in LDL cholesterol levels.

Full article here