Medication non-adherence is a growing public health concern because there is evidence that this is prevalent problem which is associated with adverse outcomes and higher costs of care. Addressing the problem is especially critical as the number of Americans affected by a chronic condition requiring medication therapy is expected to grow from 133 to 157 million by 2020. Nearly three out of four Americans admit that they do not always take their medication as directed, a problem that causes more than one-third of medicine-related hospitalizations, nearly 125,000 deaths in the U.S. each year, and adds $290 billion in avoidable costs to the health care system annually.

One of several ways the College is working to encourage medication adherence is through the Script Your Future campaign led by the National Consumers League (NCL), a 113-year-old Washington, DC-based consumer advocacy organization. The campaign addresses the need for tools and resources to support medication adherence across the country and opens dialogue between health care professionals and patients about the health consequences of non-adherence. Advocates have found that the messages about the importance of adherence need to come from a variety of places in order for patients to absorb them, and the campaign faces that challenge head-on by partnering with diverse groups, and working to reach patients in a variety of places, and via a variety of relationships – through open dialogue with doctors, pharmacists, nurses, caregivers, and other health care professionals.

This spring marked the first anniversary of the three-year campaign that targets those who suffer from three chronic conditions: cardiovascular, diabetes and respiratory. Script Your Future is operating at both the national level and in six regional target markets across the country – Baltimore, Birmingham, Cincinnati, Providence, Raleigh, and Sacramento – hosting local, grassroots efforts on the ground in these communities to educate patients and their loved ones about the importance of taking medication as directed and to initiate new conversations between patients and their healthcare professionals.

Moving forward, Script Your Future offers several opportunities for Chapters, both in the target markets and nationally as part of the Million Hearts campaign, to increase patient education around the benefits of medication adherence as it relates to the treatment and prevention of heart disease. It also affords opportunities to promote CardioSmart tools, such as the new CardioSmart Med Reminder app. This app is free to iPhone and iPad users and is intended to serve as a medication and prescription refill reminder, as well as a personal medication record, to help patients communicate with health care providers about the medications they are taking.

This summer the ACC and CardioSmart are promoting a “Don’t Take a Vacation from Your Medication” campaign on our social media channels to curb the trend of medication non-adherence and to encourage patients to not forget about taking their medication. Get all of the tips and tools on ACC and CardioSmart’s Facebook pages. Also be sure to follow @ACCinTouch and @CardioSmart on Twitter. You can also learn more about medication adherence in the July/August issue of Cardiology magazine, hitting newsstands later this month, and in the July issue of CardioSource WorldNews. The College’s Hospital to Home (H2H) campaign also has medication adherence as a key component of reducing unwarranted hospital readmissions. You can learn more and take part in the H2H “Mind Your Meds” Challenge at h2hquality.org.

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