Promoting medication adherence for a healthier tomorrow

LIH student takes part in COST Action “ENABLE” project

• Deep Digital Phenotyping Research Unit
• Department of Precision Health

With an aging society and a rise in chronic diseases, treatment adherence has never been more important. LIH PhD scholar Catherine Goetzinger is part of the COST Action “ENABLE”, a European funded multi-national project that aims to find innovative solutions to help patients adhere to their recommended treatment courses.

Due to an aging society, there is a steady increase in chronic diseases and many people need lifetime medication. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), only 50% of patients in long-term therapy are able to follow physician recommendations. Reversing this trend requires a multifaceted effort, from patients to physicians, pharmacists, nurses, and patient caregivers.

The European Network to Advance Best practices & technoLogy on medication adherencE (ENABLE) is a 39-country network working to help patients understand and follow the treatment recommendations for taking their medication, leading to better responses to drug treatments for chronic illnesses such as hypertension, diabetes, or asthma. “We aim to raise awareness for, develop and implement innovative solutions to support medication adherence, a problem faced in healthcare systems across Europe”, explains Dr Job van Boven, chair of ENABLE. “Patients may forget to take their medicines, stop using them intentionally for different reasons, or may not understand the use of the medicine. And that’s why we need personalized and context-tailored solutions.”

Awareness of healthcare professionals on the availability and implementation of adherence enhancing technology is limited and there is a lack of collaboration between stakeholders. Successful European-wide implementation of adherence enhancing technology is further hampered by a lack of insight in different European healthcare systems, reimbursement pathways and policy regulations that significantly differ between countries. This affects not only patients and healthcare professionals, but also manufacturers of technology (mostly SMEs) in their innovation capacity and competitiveness.

To address these challenges, ENABLE aims to (1) raise awareness of adherence enhancing technological solutions, (2) foster and extend multidisciplinary knowledge on medication adherence at patient, treatment and system levels, (3) accelerate translation of this knowledge to useful clinical application and (4) work collaboratively towards economically viable implementation of adherence enhancing technology across European healthcare systems.

Catherine Goetzinger, a PhD student in digital epidemiology and public health at the Luxembourg Institute of Health, has been a managing committee member of the COST Action “ENABLE” since 2019. Her research focuses on medication adherence enhancing interventions (MAEIs) in breast cancer patients. She adopts diverse methodologies such as quantitative and qualitative and mixed-methods approaches as well as perspectives from the individual-level (e.g. health behaviour change, health literacy, self-management), to that of healthcare professionals and the system-level (e.g. collaborative care, quality of care). Via ENABLE, she raises awareness and develops innovative solutions to support patients’ medication adherence to improve health outcomes. Her PhD is financed by the Action LIONS Vaincre le Cancer and she is also a member of ESPACOMP (European Society for Patient Adherence, Compliance and Persistence).

Medication adherence may not always seem like the first problem that comes to mind when thinking of chronic diseases, but it is one that can make all the difference when it comes to improving health outcomes. ENABLE adherence is a great initiative both in its aims and in its methods. It is a pleasure and an honour to contribute to such an important project.

concludes Ms. Goetzinger,

Learn more about medication adherence by following the ENABLE project

For further info: www.enableadherence.eu or contact@enableadherence.eu

Contacts: Project coordinator Job van Bovenj.f.m.van.boven@umcg.nl and science communication manager: Björn Wettermark bjorn.wettermark@farmaci.uu.se

Catherine Goetzinger, MC member catherine.goetzinger@lih.lu

About the project

CA19132 –ENABLE: “European Network to Advance Best practices & technoLogy on medication adherencE” is a COST Action supported by Horizon 2020 Framework Program funded by European Union.