European knowledge bank to improve medication adherence

Lack of quality in drug utilisation is one of healthcare’s major challenges. In Europe alone, medication non-adherence is estimated to cost 200,000 lives and €8.8 billion a year: an extent that in autumn 2020 united researchers, physicians and companies in 39 countries in ENABLE Adherence, a pan-European network mapping and spreading methods and tools to increase adherence. Last week, the initiative reached an important milestone, as network representatives and Swedish healthcare organisations met at Uppsala's Biomedical Centre for Digital Technologies for Medication Adherence.

“That healthcare has access to better drugs does little if the patients do not use them properly. Throughout Europe, methods and technical devices are developed to support healthcare professionals and patients to improve compliance, but they are poorly implemented with a lack of consensus between different stakeholders. Therefor, we have identified quality-assured tools and collected them in a searchable knowledge bank, and last week's meeting marked both the final step of the ENABLE Adherence project and the starting point of the next phase of our work,” says Björn Wettermark, Professor of Pharmacoepidemiology.

On site in Uppsala were, among others, Job van Boven, Associate Professor at the University of Groningen and chair of ENABLE Adherence, as well as Ines Potočnjak, clinical pharmacologist at the Zagreb University Hospital and leader of Work package Current practices. Among the many Swedish organisations offering presentations were Kristina Söderlund of Diabetes Stockholm who argued the importance of adopting and understanding patient perspectives, and Björn Nordlund of Karolinska Institutet who lectured on the development of AsthmaTuner.

“Sweden has reached far in this field, not least in terms of digital tools and national infrastructures, which opens up effective ways to involve care recipients in responsibility for their medication adherence. This meeting therefore also provided the opportunity to introduce our international guests to what our country can offer. I myself reported the results of our national inventory of methods and technologies for increased adherence that is now available on the ENABLE Adherence website,” says Marie Ekenberg, PhD student at the Department of Pharmacy.

A central part of the ENABLE Adherence strategy is to communicate best practices in order to empower knowledge and implementation of tools for increased adherence in European healthcare systems. With the searchable knowledge bank now online, the work is currently restructured to focus on the launch and management of the platform. There are also plans to establish competence centers throughout Europe with the task to promote interdisciplinary cooperation regarding adherence and generate increased and lasting benefits.

“Quality deficiencies in the prescription and use of drugs cause both unnecessary suffering and major socio-economic challenges. The needs are urgent and we have now, supported by the EU initiative COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) Action, established the knowledge bank and the international networks we need to bring about necessary improvements. So when we today set sail for the next phase of our work, we do so with well-founded optimism,” says Björn Wettermark.

text: Magnus Alsne, photo: Mikael Wallerstedt, Magnus Alsne