One out of two Americans has a chronic illness. One out of four has two or more chronic illnesses. Chronic illness accounts for half of all deaths, and represents 75% of American healthcare cost. One of the challenges of treating the chronically ill is medication adherence. When people don’t take prescribed medications, the cost of care goes up because the prescribed treatment does not cure the diagnosis or because of resulting unnecessary tests and procedures.

A recent study of 16 randomized clinical trials found texting can double the odds of patients sticking to medication adherence. The trials were short and the results may not be conclusive, but I think the concept of gentle reminders via texting has some merit. The flip side is patients who don’t need reminders might view the texts as annoying. One size does not fit all. See the full story at Texting can boost medication adherence for chronically ill patients – FierceMobileHealthcare. Read about other technology which can improve medication adherence in Health Attitude.