Effective management of a patient's medication therapy is an important factor in achieving successful treatment results. The closer a patient adheres to his or her prescribed medication treatment program, the more likely that the treatment will be effective. Unfortunately, in many instances patients do not adequately comply with their medication therapy programs. Poor compliance with treatment programs can result in negative health impacts for the patient as well as negative impacts on those who have an interest in maintaining the patient's health.
In a typical medication therapy setting there is a number of parties or stakeholders who have an in interest in achieving a successful result. FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a number of the stakeholders who may have an interest in a patient's successful medication treatment outcome. At the center is the patient 10. No stakeholder has a greater interest in an effective medication treatment program than the patient 10. Many patients, such as children or the elderly, may have a caregiver 12 who is responsible for caring for them. A caregiver 12 may be responsible for scheduling doctor appointments, transporting the patient to their appointments, getting prescriptions filled, administering medications, and so forth. The doctor 14 treating the patient 10 has a professional interest in the patient's health. The pharmacist 17 who fills the patient's prescriptions also has a professional interest in serving the patient similar to that of the patient's doctor 14. The pharmacy 16 that sells the patient his or her prescribed medications has a business interest in continuing to serve the patient. If the patient is covered by insurance or if the patient is a member of a managed-care organization which pays for some or all of the patient's medications, the insurance company or managed-care organization 18 will have an interest in managing the patient's medications and keeping costs down. At a further remove, the pharmaceutical company 20 that manufactures the patient's medications has an interest in continuing to sell medications to the patient 10. Even more generally, pharmacy trade groups 22, such as the American Pharmacists' Association, The American College of Clinical Pharmacy and others, may have an interest in learning about effective medication therapy management techniques, as well as trends in the industry, successful drug treatments and the like. Similarly, doctors, nurses, hospitals and other members of the broader medical community 214 will have an interest in learning about effective medication therapies, methods of keeping costs down and improved treatment outcomes, as will public health organizations 26 and government agencies 28 tasked with providing health-related services.
Of the stakeholders identified in FIG. 1, only the caregiver 12, the doctor 14, the pharmacy 16 and perhaps the insurance company or managed-care organization 18 are likely to have direct contact with the patient 10. Nonetheless, other stakeholders may wish to obtain data regarding the patient and the patient's medication therapy program. Various stakeholders may also wish to communicate important messages to individual patients regarding their medication treatment programs. What is more, even though the caregiver 12, the doctor 14, the pharmacy 16 and the even insurance company/managed-care organization 18 may have somewhat regular contact with the patient 10, the nature of the relationship with the patient and the frequency of contact with the patient may vary significantly for each entity. For example, the patient is unlikely to discuss specifics of his or her treatment with the insurance company 18. The doctor 14 prescribes the patient's medication but may not have accurate information about the patient's compliance with the prescribed medication therapy, and so forth. Thus, while each stakeholder may be in a position to obtain a limited amount of information about the patient 10 and the patient's medication treatment program, the limited nature of the information results in each party receiving only a partial view of what is actually taking place with regard to the patient's medication therapy.
In many cases, data collected by or known by one stakeholder may be highly valuable to one or more other stakeholders. For example, once a patient's doctor 14 prescribes a specific medication treatment, the doctor has no way of knowing how closely the patient is adhering to the prescribed treatment regimen. The pharmacy, on the other hand, is in a position to review the patient's prescription fill history to determine whether the patient has had enough medication on hand to comply with the prescribed treatment program. Since a patient's failure to comply with his or her doctor's prescribed treatment program could lead to an unsuccessful result, which in turn could lead to a more serious illness and more expensive treatments, many of the stakeholders identified in FIG. 1 will have an interest in knowing whether the patient 10 is complying with his or her prescribed medication therapy.
Although there are many stakeholders who may have an interest in a patient's medication therapy, a successful medication management program must focus on the individual patient. Each individual patient will have unique circumstances that define the medication management issues facing that patient. For example, some patients may have a very complicated medication regimen that is difficult to keep track of and which is nearly impossible to follow without fault. Other patients may have a nonchalant attitude toward their medication which may cause them to frequently miss doses. Still other patients may not have the financial resources to cover the costs of their medications. Some treatments may require frequent tests to ensure the efficacy of the treatment or to detect the presence of adverse side effects. A medication management system must be capable of dealing with all of these factors and more in order to deliver all of the services necessary to help patients manage their medications.
A medication management system is desired that will take into account all of the unique circumstances facing individual patients and provide services uniquely tailored to meet each patient's needs. Such a medication management program must be scalable to meet the individualized needs of hundreds of thousands or even millions of individual patients. Further it is desired that a medication management system may serve as a central repository for information regarding patients and their medication treatment programs. This information may be collected and presented in ways that will help improve patient compliance with their medication treatment programs and facilitate the delivery of compliance related services. It also desired that a medication management system provide a mechanism for identifying patients who may benefit from compliance related services and communicating the availability of such services to such patients. It is also desirable to identify other classes of patients in order to deliver special messages or have other customized interactions with the members of such classes of patients on behalf of various stakeholders having an interest in the various patients' treatment outcomes.