When it comes to taking pills, drops, injections, and other forms of medication, about one third to one half of U.S. patients do not adhere to prescribed medication regimens (Osterberg and Blaschke, Adherence to Medication, New England Journal of Medicine, August 2005). There are many reasons for this ranging from difficulties in the timing of dosages to cost to potential side effects to feeling better and not completing the full course of the medication. One feature of the new Carcinoid NETs app (read more and download the app) is a Medication Tracker. It helps you track all of your medications, set reminders, record which medications were taken and when, and note if they were skipped and why.
“If we could develop something to get people to take the medicine we prescribe them, it would have a greater benefit to society than any new drug we could develop,” says Silja Chouquet, who explores in “DE-scribe Medecines,” a TED-X talk, why we don’t take our medication and what we should do about it.
Silja Chouquet is the owner and CEO of whydot GmbH, an agency specializing in social media consulting, coaching and training. Her fields of expertise are the creation of patient-focused social media communications and marketing campaigns. She is also an entrepreneur at Ubercurious, a social media research start-up, which generates insights by combining traditional research approaches with novel data visualization techniques. Silja has worked in different positions at two multi-national pharmaceutical companies.
