Grant: Project Grant

Medications lead to longer, healthier lives, but can also cause problems. Around 30% of emergency department (ED) visits and hospital admissions are medication-related, and many are preventable. For example, medications may be inappropriately prescribed. There are also often misunderstandings about the need for medications and how to take them, resulting in underuse of needed treatment. The majority of hospitalized patients are prescribed at least one potentially inappropriate medication, and as many as half of patients discharged home from the hospital do not properly follow their medication regimens. This puts them at a greater risk of ED visits or hospital readmission due to poor control of health conditions. These challenges highlight the need for tools that empower patients to better manage their complex medication regimens after discharge from hospital and to follow-up with their physicians to discontinue potentially inappropriate medications. To address this need, we developed a patient-centered mobile application called Smart About Meds (SAM). SAM provides patients and their caregivers with a continuously updated list of the medications they have been prescribed and the medications they have purchased from the pharmacy. This medication list is accompanied by pill images, drug information leaflets, medication reviews by other patients, a side effect checker, an interaction checker, a weekly schedule with daily pill reminders, alerts if they do not follow planned therapy, and the ability to connect with pharmacists when needed. SAM also alerts patients to medications prescribed at discharge that might be inappropriate or unnecessary, and advises them to discuss this with their physician. We propose to conduct a clinical study to test our hypothesis that SAM improves patients' adherence to their medications, improves patient empowerment and quality of life, and lowers the risk of ED visits and hospital readmission in the 3 months after discharge from hospital.