Patient-centered priorities for improving medication management and adherence

• The Centers for Education and Research on Therapeutics (CERTs) convened stakeholders including patients, providers, researchers and others to identify priorities for advancing patient-centered medication management. Stakeholders identified many priorities outside the traditional scope of adherence research.
• The top three priorities were: creating tools and systems to facilitate and evaluate patient-centered medication management plans; developing training on patient-centered prescribing for providers; and increasing patients’ knowledge about medication management.
• Priorities differed across stakeholder groups. Notably, patients prioritized using peer support to improve medication management while researchers did not.

ObjectiveThe Centers for Education and Research on Therapeutics convened a workshop to examine the scientific evidence on medication adherence interventions from the patient-centered perspective and to explore the potential of patient-centered medication management to improve chronic disease treatment.MethodsPatients, providers, researchers, and other stakeholders (N = 28) identified and prioritized ideas for future research and practice. We analyzed stakeholder voting on priorities and reviewed themes in workshop discussions.ResultsTen priority areas emerged. Three areas were highly rated by all stakeholder groups: creating tools and systems to facilitate and evaluate patient-centered medication management plans; developing training on patient-centered prescribing for providers; and increasing patients’ knowledge about medication management. However, priorities differed across stakeholder groups. Notably, patients prioritized using peer support to improve medication management while researchers did not.ConclusionEngaging multiple stakeholders in setting a patient-centered research agenda and broadening the scope of adherence interventions to include other aspects of medication management resulted in priorities outside the traditional scope of adherence research.Practice ImplicationsWorkshop participants recognized the potential benefits of patient-centered medication management but also identified many challenges to implementation that require additional research and innovation.