UM Students Launch City-Wide Medication Adherence and Advocacy Campaign
Local campaign is part of national effort to raise awareness about the need for patients with chronic conditions to take medications as directed.
By Malissa Carroll
February 25, 2013
Throughout the month of February, students from the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, in collaboration with students from the University of Maryland Schools of Medicine, Nursing, and Public Health, conducted a series of community outreach activities to raise awareness about the health consequences associated with poor medication adherence. This local campaign was part of the nationwide Script Your Future Medication Adherence Challenge, which launched in 2011 to help raise awareness and educate the public about the importance of medication adherence.
“The Script Your Future campaign is at the heart of what pharmacists can do to help patients take their medications as directed,” says Cherokee Layson-Wolf, PharmD, CGP, BCACP, FAPhA, assistant dean for experiential learning at the School of Pharmacy. “The students’ coordination of this campaign helps them spread the message of medication adherence to not only patients, but to other health care providers as well.”
Medications only work when patients follow the instructions provided by their doctor, pharmacist, or other health care professional. Taking medicine as directed is known as medication adherence. However, approximately half of the 3.2 billion prescriptions dispensed each year in the United States are not taken as directed. Examples of patients’ failure to adhere to medications include delaying prescription fills, failing to fill a prescription, decreasing the prescribed dosage, and reducing the frequency in which the medication is taken.
As one of the most accessible members of the health care team, pharmacists can play a vital role in increasing patients’ medication adherence. The Script Your Future Medication Adherence Challenge was designed to engage student pharmacists in a public education effort on the importance of helping patients with chronic diseases, such as diabetes, respiratory disease, and cardiovascular disease, take their medications as directed. It is a project of the National Consumers League (NCL), the National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS) Foundation, and the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) that expanded to include students from all health professions for the 2013 challenge.
“I was excited to hear that the Challenge was encouraging interdisciplinary collaboration this year,” says Christopher Min, a third-year student pharmacist and president and executive committee chair of the Student Section of the Maryland Public Health Association (SMdPHA). “I thought it really spoke to the way each member of the health care team is able to play an integral role in medication adherence.”
Poor medication adherence poses a severe threat to patients’ health. Approximately 125,000 people die each year because they do not take their medications as directed. With the number of Americans affected by at least one chronic condition expected to increase from 133 to 157 million by 2020, addressing the problem of poor medication adherence is critical.
At the University of Maryland, Baltimore and the Universities at Shady Grove in Rockville, Md., students partnered with local pharmacies, non-profit, and government organizations to host campus and community outreach activities designed to encourage individuals who have been diagnosed, or know someone who has been diagnosed, with diabetes, respiratory disease, or cardiovascular disease to pledge to take their medications correctly and reach the next milestone in their lives.
“The Challenge activities have been University-wide. Students from each school at the University have volunteered to help us raise awareness about the importance of medication adherence for patients with chronic disease,” says Jamie Elsner, a third-year student pharmacist and chapter president of the American Pharmacists Association-Academy of Student Pharmacists (APhA-ASP). “It was a nice way for the entire campus to unite, work towards a common goal, and get all of the professions working together.”
To support their outreach work, students also developed a website that individuals can visit to take the pledge to commit to take their medications correctly and download a wallet card that will help them keep track of medications. A Facebook page was also created to promote this campaign. The page is updated every day with new facts about the importance of medication adherence.
In 2012, student pharmacists from the School of Pharmacy were selected from 81 participating colleges and schools of pharmacy as the winner of the Script Your Future Medication Adherence Challenge’s “Target Market Challenge Award” for their work in Baltimore to raise awareness and educate the public about medication adherence by participating in health fairs and other local events.
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