Appointment-based medication synchronization
Citation: Nguyen E, Sobieraj DM. The impact of appointment-based medication synchronization on medication taking behaviour and health outcomes: A systematic review. Journal of Clinical Pharmacy and Therapeutics 2017; 42(4): 404-13
What is this? The COVID-19 pandemic is placing a strain on health services. Existing research on the effects of interventions that aim to improve patient adherence to medications, such as proactive repeat prescriptions through an Appointment-Based-Model (ABM), may provide useful information for policy makers.
In this systematic review the authors searched for comparative effectiveness studies of the impact of ABM for repeat prescriptions on medication-taking behaviours, clinical and cost outcomes. They restricted their searches to articles published in English and did the search in February 2017. They included 1 randomized trial, 1 quasi-experimental study and 3 observational studies; all from the USA.
What was found: ABM may improve medication adherence for patients with chronic conditions, although the randomized trial of patients with hypertension found no improvement in medication adherence in the ABM intervention group.
ABM might produce cost savings.
The effects of ABM on healthcare use, clinical outcomes and patient and provider satisfaction are uncertain.
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