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Patient
Compliance Can Cut Clinical Efficacy in Half
Many patients have never considered that the efficacy
of their prescription medications will decrease
if they do not take the medication correctly.
For example, if a medication is 90% effective
in treating a condition, but the patient takes
only 50% of the prescribed number of doses, the
efficacy or "usefulness" of that medication
falls to 45%.
When patients
receive information they can believe and understand,
they start to take their medications correctly
and refill their prescriptions on time. Your product
gets the chance to demonstrate its effectiveness.
For more on
how patient compliance affects your ROI, click
here.
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Readability
Is Only
the First Part of the Equation
 A
common misconception
that many product managers have is that they think the most
important goal in developing patient materials is to get the
readability level down to the grade 6-8 level. But getting
the readability down to this level is no guarantee the consumer
will be able to understand it.
One of the examples I
use to describe the difference between readability and comprehension
is the recommendation sometimes given to a patient to "avoid
eating red meat." While "red meat" is a phrase that would
pass a readability test at the grade 4 level, it still will
not be understood by many consumers.
Why? Many consumers simply
don't know which meats are classified as "red meat". After
all, once red meat is cooked, it is no longer red. The product
team needs to make sure that consumers know which meats they
are talking about. There are many more examples of seemingly
simple terms that will not be understood by patients unless
they are clearly explained.
The point is that there
is a vast difference between readability and comprehension.
We have to remember that it's more complicated than just
using short words.
Consumer
Health Information Corporation's Expertise
in Patient Communications
 Developing
messages for consumers and patients on medications requires
a very specialized blending of medical information, regulatory
requirements, marketing techniques, health literacy principles,
patient compliance strategies, and behavior modification techniques...
then translating everything into language the average consumer
can understand ... and reinforcing it with an effective "patient-friendly"
design.
Even though a DTC campaign
or a patient information program has met all the requirements
of the company's clinical, marketing, legal and regulatory
teams as well as the FDA regulations, it can NEVER be maximally
effective if the consumer does not understand the information.
Consumer Health Information
Corporation's experts in patient compliance and consumer behavior
know how to develop "consumer-friendly" materials that motivate
patients to take the medication correctly. Only then can the
product fulfill its potential.
Click
here to see why we're unique.
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