Lifestyle modifications and medication adherence

Well. …it happened.

Last week I had blood work done and my doctor is not happy with my cholesterol numbers. 

“What are we going to do about that?” he asked.

My first thought was ... “Nothing!”  (Just like a real patient.)

And so began the discussion of lifestyle modifications. I need to “eat clean.” Whatever that means. 

Let me pair this story with a post I saw on LinkedIn this morning. The post was talking about the various forms of technology to help with medication adherence, then transitioned to emphasize patient education. Both of those items – technology and patient education – are super important in medication adherence. But I am afraid that even combined they are not enough.

Many people, including myself, believed at one point that patients were very much like a cup. The education provided would be like the liquid filling up the cup. Once the cup got filled to a certain level, like a switch, the patient would begin to do everything correctly.

That's what I, for one, believed. But I have found it necessary over the years to rethink many of my beliefs, especially around pharmacy practice. 

One way I rethought my beliefs was to revisit the idea that all days are created equal. While all days have 24 hours, they are not all the same. Some days are just different – for better or worse. Speaking from my own experience, I have found that I've missed doses of medications on certain days. It’s not that I lacked some level of education or even good intentions. I even had technology that supported me. What happened was life. My day was disrupted, and my routine was not the same. The result was a late or even missed dose of medication.

I believe there is another piece to the equation in addition to education and technology. I believe that behaviour modification is necessary as well. Let me clarify effective behaviour modification. This points us to leadership skills. We must be able to lead people effectively. We need to help them identify where they need to go and how they can get there. Something else they need is a strong bit of encouragement. Because all days are not created equal, some days will see more successes than others. Some days will even have setbacks. One of the ways we can effectively lead people is through encouragement and reinforcing the positive steps our patients have been able to take.

Let me encourage you to encourage your team and patients today.

Until next time –

Jesse McCullough, PharmD

Connect with Jesse on LinkedIn