HealthHonors' Innovative Technology Platform Adopted By AstraZeneca - Program Will Help Patients Take Their Medicines As Prescribed

Main Category: Compliance
Article Date: 08 Oct 2008 - 2:00 PDT

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HealthHonors® today announced that AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP has implemented HealthHonors' proprietary technology platform to help patients remember to take their medicine as prescribed.

The HealthHonors platform, known as Dynamic Intermittent Reinforcement (DIR™), is a patient incentive program that uses intermittent reinforcement schedules to motivate patients to take their medications as prescribed. In a random¬ized study using this proprietary system, patients who took part in the program were 33 percent more adherent to their medications as compared to patients who were not a part of the program; and prescription refill latency, defined as the length of time that elapses between a scheduled refill and when the patient picks up the medicine, decreased by 34 percent.

Studies have shown that more than half of the 3.5 billion annual dispensed prescriptions in the United States are not taken as prescribed. This can lead to disease progression, increased hospitalization and additional costs to the U.S. health system. When patients fail to take their prescribed medicine, it leads to more than $100 billion per year in additional system costs and 125,000 deaths, and accounts for 10 percent of all hospitalizations in the United States, according to a study by Drs. Terrence Blaschke and Lars Osterberg that appeared in a 2005 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.

John Sheehan, president and CEO of HealthHonors, said AstraZeneca's use of HealthHonors' platform underscores AstraZeneca's commitment to patients. "We are very pleased that AstraZeneca has invested in Dynamic Intermittent Reinforcement technology," said Sheehan. "With mounting numbers of patients not taking their medicines as prescribed, our DIR technology can truly make a difference for patients."

"AstraZeneca is committed to finding innovative ways to help people lead healthier lives and we believe the Dynamic Intermittent Reinforcement technology can help deliver on this goal," said Mark Mallon, VP Marketing & Sales Operations, of AstraZeneca.

This latest development comes on the heels of HealthHonors announcing that its patent-pending technology will be used by health care payors, manufacturers, employers and service providers to increase patient adherence to prescribed drug therapy and wellness initiatives.

At the same time, HealthHonors announced that it is the recipient of a National Institutes of Health and National Institute on Aging grant to further measure the impact of the HealthHonors technology platform on patients over 55 who are on prescribed statin therapy. The study will be conducted with the Yale University School of Medicine through its primary care clinic in New Haven, Conn.

About HealthHonors

HealthHonors®, a Boston-area company, motivates consumers to adhere to healthy behavior through its proprietary technology, Dynamic Intermittent Reinforcement (DIR™). The DIR™ platform identifies and matches individual behavioral patterns with the most effective incentive schedule, resulting in improved adherence, lower cost per person and increased ROI. Customers include large health insurers, pharmacies, health service providers and pharmaceutical manufacturers. To learn more about HealthHonors and obtain published papers by its founders, Dr. Murat Kalayoglu and Dr. Michael Singer, visit http://www.healthhonors.com.

HealthHonors