Entry id
1_2l560b7b
The Challenge of Adherence
Over the years, one of the things that I've learned is that your patient is not always going to adhere to what you're telling them to do, whether it is for radiation, whether it is for surgery, whether it is for the oral medications that you give them. And I think we need to, as physicians, understand why that this particular problem arises in the clinic. And the challenge is to be able to not only identify the reasons for it, but to also be able to overcome those barriers. I think the first and foremost challenge that we have and that we need to be able to understand is, communication between the physician or the healthcare provider and the patient. And if that is poor, everything disintegrates from there on. It's important that the physician communicates adequately to the patient, the basis of their disease, and also makes sure that the patient's actually understanding what that disease is that they have.
01:13
They need to be able to understand the benefits of therapy, and of course the benefits of using their medications appropriately and properly. And communication is key. Building that relationship between the healthcare physician as well as the patient is vital, and it's the most important barrier that you need to overcome. So the whole concept of adherence and persistence in my mind can be summarized by the fact that you need to have all three components, that's the patient, the provider, and the healthcare system communicating with each other to overcome this very, very important problem. Because, if you want drugs to work, you have to actually take them. Drugs will simply not work if you're not taking them. So communication and connection between these three components are vital.
Over the years, one of the things that I've learned is that your patient is not always going to adhere to what you're telling them to do, whether it is for radiation, whether it is for surgery, whether it is for the oral medications that you give them. And I think we need to, as physicians, understand why that this particular problem arises in the clinic. And the challenge is to be able to not only identify the reasons for it, but to also be able to overcome those barriers. I think the first and foremost challenge that we have and that we need to be able to understand is, communication between the physician or the healthcare provider and the patient. And if that is poor, everything disintegrates from there on. It's important that the physician communicates adequately to the patient, the basis of their disease, and also makes sure that the patient's actually understanding what that disease is that they have.
01:13
They need to be able to understand the benefits of therapy, and of course the benefits of using their medications appropriately and properly. And communication is key. Building that relationship between the healthcare physician as well as the patient is vital, and it's the most important barrier that you need to overcome. So the whole concept of adherence and persistence in my mind can be summarized by the fact that you need to have all three components, that's the patient, the provider, and the healthcare system communicating with each other to overcome this very, very important problem. Because, if you want drugs to work, you have to actually take them. Drugs will simply not work if you're not taking them. So communication and connection between these three components are vital.