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Digital health solution shows promising results for medication adherence in young kidney transplant patients
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Teen and young adult kidney transplant recipients who used a digital health, medication management and adherence solution in combination with coaching had 66% higher adherence to anti-rejection medicine, according to findings recently published online in the American Journal of Kidney Disease.
The Teen Adherence in Kidney transplant, Effectiveness of Intervention Trial (TAKE-IT) study aimed to determine if a program of regular coaching, review of electronically monitored adherence, and a medication management and reminder system provided by Vaica Medical’s SimpleMed would aid young patients to consistently take their medication. According to a press release from Vaica Medical, the multicenter study included 81 patients in the TAKE-IT intervention group and 88 controls. The median age for the groups was 15.5 years and 15.8 years, respectively. Patients were treated at medical centers in the United States and Canada.
A study coach met with the groups every 3 months for 15 months. The intervention group could choose to receive emails, text messages and visual cue dose reminders. They reviewed adherence data from the prior 3 months with the coach. The control group used the electronic monitor and had general social support. However, the control group did not receive alerts or notifications.
“Now that the trial is complete and showed that using the electronic pillbox, in combination with coaching, helped young people adhere to a strict schedule of anti-rejection medication, I hope to be able to move this intervention into clinical practice,” Bethany J. Foster, MD, MSCE, pediatric nephrologist at Montreal Children’s Hospital, McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC), principal investigator of the TAKE-IT studies and primary author of the article, said in the release.
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Disclosures: Foster is a co-investigator on an investigator-initiated study funded by Astellas Canada. The remaining authors declare that they have no relevant financial interests.
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Foster BJ, et al. AJKD. 2018;doi:https://doi.org/10.1053/j.ajkd.2017.12.012
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