WOONSOCKET, R.I., Sept. 21, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- A new study by
researchers at the CVS Health (NYSE:CVS) Research Institute and
Brigham and Women's Hospital provides evidence that patients'
patterns of medication fills in the first few months after starting
on a chronic therapy accurately predict future medication adherence
behavior. The study, published in The American Journal of
Managed Care, suggests that this approach may help quickly
identify those patients most likely to benefit from medication
adherence interventions.
"With the increasing availability of rich patient data, we can
better anticipate how the patients we manage will take their
medications," said Niteesh Choudhry, MD, PhD, associate physician,
Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics, Brigham and
Women's Hospital and associate professor, Harvard Medical School and the study's senior
author. "This research shows that by focusing on a patient's
initial, short-term medication filling behavior – are they or are
they not refilling their prescription on time during the first few
months of therapy – we can predict with great precision whether a
patient will continue to take the medication as prescribed over the
long-term."
The study included claims data from more than 77,000 Medicare
beneficiaries that began taking a statin or statin combination drug
over a three year period and whose pharmacy benefits are
administered by CVS/caremark, the pharmacy benefit management
company of CVS Health. Based on patterns of prescription filling
over the year following therapy initiation, the researchers used
group-based trajectory models to classify patients into six
adherence trajectories–ranging from non-adherent to near-perfect
adherence–to help capture both duration and intensity of medication
taking. The results showed that patient patterns of initial
medication filling in the first two to four months following
initiation of a prescription accurately predicted future adherence
behavior, allowing precise prediction of the patterns of medication
taking over the subsequent year.
This research helps to further validate group-based trajectory
modeling as an accurate approach to classify patient medication
adherence behaviors. This study builds on a growing body of
peer-reviewed literature developed through the research partnership
between Brigham and Women's Hospital and the CVS Health Research
Institute. Previous studies by these research partners have
demonstrated that the group-based trajectory model offers greater
precision than other sophisticated computational approaches to
predict adherence after initially describing this methodology in a
publication in the journal Medical Care in 2013.
"This approach is helping us better target interventions to
those patients who are most likely to benefit because trajectory
modeling differentiates between patients who struggle with
adherence at different times during their treatment," said William
Shrank, MD, MSHS, senior vice president and Chief Scientific
Officer, CVS Health and study co-author. "It can also be easily
replicated and available to support a wide spectrum of payors and
providers who are attempting to improve the quality and reduce the
costs of health care. Increasingly, we are finding that, through
better analytics, we can deliver the right intervention to the
right patient at the right time."
Research shows that half of people who have long-term
prescriptions for chronic conditions do not take their medicines as
prescribed, costing the U.S. nearly $300
billion and tens of thousands of lives each year. As a
pharmacy innovation company, CVS Health is using advanced analytics
to more effectively target medication adherence interventions,
improve health outcomes and reduce health care costs. In fact, CVS
Health recently launched the Vulnerable Patient Index (VPI), a tool
that uses pharmacy claims data to risk-stratify patients and
identify CVS/caremark members most likely to generate high total
health care costs resulting from poor medication adherence or
unsafe use of complex regimens. By leveraging rich claims databases
to better understand risk and to anticipate patient behaviors, CVS
Health is better positioned to manage the health of populations by
delivering tailored interventions that address individual patient
medication use challenges.
The CVS Health Research Institute is focused on contributing to
the body of scientific knowledge related to pharmacy and health
care through research collaborations with external academic
institutions, participation in federally-funded research, analysis
and sharing of CVS Health data sources and coordination of pilot
programs and initiatives. This analysis is part of a multi-year
research collaboration with Brigham and Women's Hospital to better
understand patient behavior, particularly around medication
adherence. CVS Health Research Institute findings support a
continuous quality improvement environment, which encourages
product innovation and development to benefit CVS Health patients,
clients and their members.
To read the study, click the following link:
http://www.ajmc.com/journals/issue/2015/2015-vol21-n9/Predicting-Adherence-Trajectory-Using-Initial-Patterns-of-Medication-Filling
About CVS Health
CVS Health (NYSE: CVS) is a pharmacy
innovation company helping people on their path to better health.
Through its 7,800 retail drugstores, nearly 1,000 walk-in medical
clinics, a leading pharmacy benefits manager with more than 70
million plan members, and expanding specialty pharmacy services,
the Company enables people, businesses and communities to manage
health in more affordable, effective ways. This unique integrated
model increases access to quality care, delivers better health
outcomes and lowers overall health care costs. Find more
information about how CVS Health is shaping the future of health at
www.cvshealth.com.
Media
Contact:
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Christina Beckerman
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CVS Health
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CVS Health
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(401)
770-3317
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(401) 770-8868
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christine.cramer@cvshealth.com
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christina.beckerman@cvshealth.com
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