iMedA: Improving MEDication Adherence through Person Centered Care and Adaptive Interventions
| Reference number | |
| Coordinator | Högskolan i Halmstad - School of Information Technology |
| Funding from Vinnova | SEK 3 000 000 |
| Project duration | November 2017 - May 2021 |
| Status | Completed |
| Venture | Digital health |
Purpose and goal
Despite the availability of effective medications and the prior success of digital interventions, nonadherence to medications still remains a problem for hypertension patients. A common limitation is that digital interventions are effective in changing current behaviour but cannot adapt to needs changing over time. Most interventions provide a general solution for the “average” person, and patients alone are responsible for finding the right information for themselves. These interventions rarely consider the barriers causing non-adherence and other related behaviours.
Expected results and effects
The aim of this study was to design, develop, test, and evaluate a tailored digital intervention delivered through a mobile app, to increase medication adherence and self-care management for hypertensive patients. This study illustrated how self-care management tools can be additional digital treatment support to a clinical one without increasing the burden on health care staff. We revealed the need for a multifaceted digital intervention to be personalised according to key determinants of low adherence to medication or uncontrolled BP among patients with hypertension.
Planned approach and implementation
The recruitment of participants has been a challenge. Of all the 521 eligible patients from the database from the strategically chosen healthcare centres, fewer participants than anticipated partake in the focus groups and pilot study. To a large degree, this has to be attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic since hypertensive patients are in the high-risk group, so most eligible people have been extremely cautious during the last year. Despite these challenges, though, the project delivered on the key results, namely the methodology for designing adaptive interventions.