Press Releases

February 1, 2006
Clinical Technology Advisors Chosen as Exclusive Distributer of the SIMpill Medication Adherence System

 
Unfortunately, people are not very good at taking pills over long periods, even when their lives are at stake. CTA is dedicated to improving people’s health by solving medication adherence problems.

Medication adherence (compliance) is defined as the extent to which patients take medications as prescribed (# times per day for a period of time) by their healthcare providers. Because it impedes the healing potential of virtually all modern medical advances, non-adherent patient behavior may be the single most important challenge faced by healthcare practitioners today. Patient non-adherence has been called by medical industry experts as “the Achilles heel of modern health care.”

According to the August 2005 “Medication Adherence” study reviewed in the New England Journal of Medicine:

• The most common barriers to adherence is forgetfulness (30%), followed by other priorities (16%), deliberate decision (11%), emotional factors (7%) and (27%) gave no reason.
• Average adherence rates for patients participating in clinical trials are generally higher because of the additional attention patients receive and the scrutiny of selection criteria. However, even in clinical trials, adherence rates range from only 43% to 78% among patients receiving treatment for chronic conditions, despite the fact that the consequences of non-adherence are typically more severe.
• Adherence rates are generally higher among patients with acute conditions as compared to those with chronic conditions. The worst cases of non-adherence are for preventive regimens or patients who are asymptomatic. Persistence among patients with chronic conditions is disappointingly low, dropping most dramatically after six months of therapy.

According to the 2005 market research study, “Pharmaceutical Patient Compliance and Disease Management – The Cost of Noncompliance”' by Cutting Edge Information:

• Up to 85% of patients do not refill prescriptions and complete their treatment regimens.
• 10% to 20% of initial prescriptions go unfilled
• Up to 20% of all hospital and nursing home admissions and 125,000 deaths annually are attributed to non-compliance
• The pharmaceutical industry loses nearly $8 billion in revenue each year based upon patients never filling or refilling their prescriptions.

Further supporting problem, according to the 2000 article “Medication Non-adherence: Finding Solutions to a Costly Medical Problem,” in Drug Benefit Trends:

• 50% of the patients for whom appropriate medication is prescribed fail to receive the full benefits because of inadequate adherence to treatment.
• 20% to 80% of patients make errors in taking medication and that 20% to 60% stop taking medications before being instructed to do so.
• The worst compliers were patients younger than 55 years and those older than 80 years, as the best compliers were approximately 70 years old.

e-Clinical Consulting for Technology Providers

For technology companies looking to expand into the clinical trials industry CTA offers the following services:

Direct product sales: One of CTA’s strengths is the direct representation of a company’s technology. This will involve contracting with CTA to have us promote your product to potential customers and give demonstrations of the technology at customer sites.

Market analysis: Looking across the competitive landscape, CTA will perform a detailed analysis of a company’s technology offering and determine the potential market size. We will also make recommendations regarding a marketing strategy that will maximize penetration into the marketplace.

Sales strategy development and training: In an environment that is extremely competitive and is characterized by long sales cycles, CTA will help technology companies to develop a sales strategy geared towards getting either initial sales or taking sales to the next level. This will involve a characterization of the ideal salesperson, headcount evaluation, and skills analysis. When appropriate, we can provide training for the salespeople targeted at your specific product. This will involve sales techniques for both face-to-face interactions with potential customers and telesales skills.

Telesales: CTA will be staffed to perform targeted telesales programs for technology companies looking to boost their identification of potential sales opportunities. This can be accompanied by direct mail campaigns as well.

Operational planning: The success of any technology product lies in the ability to provide appropriate supporting services to the customer. CTA can review your operation looking for areas that might need supplemental strategies.

Medication Adherence & Patient Compliance Solutions

One of the most crucial areas within clinical trials and marketed pharmaceuticals is patient non-adherence with their medications. With the advent and ubiquity of mobile cellular phones and text messaging (SMS), there are now opportunities to influence patient behavior and increase patient compliance with their prescribed drug regimen. CTA has made this our highest priority to introduce technology into the clinical trial and general marketplace. Our current offerings in this area include the following services:
 

CTA is the exclusive North American provider of the SIMpill medication compliance system. This system allows patients to be automatically reminded when they miss a dose based upon their individual medication schedule. It also allows other third parties (caregivers) to be alerted when a dose is missed. To learn more about this solution, please visit www.SIMpillDirect.com.


 

Sometimes there is the need to alert patients when their next doctor appointment is, when they should be following a certain procedure, or asking them how they are feeling at a specific point during their day. Via our partnership with Exco InTouch, we are able to set-up treatment-specific reminder patterns for individuals or for groups of patient following a clinical trial protocol. For more information regarding this service, please click here.