Campaign seeks to enhance medication adherence

Script Your Future, a campaign to improve medication adherence, held its kickoff meeting on April 19, 2011, in Sacramento, Calif. The campaign, which is being led by the National Consumers League (NCL), seeks to raise awareness among patients and their family caregivers that a vital first step toward better health outcomes is to take medication as prescribed.

The 3-year campaign will focus on patients affected by diabetes, respiratory disease, and cardiovascular disease. It will also develop tools for use by healthcare professionals and patients to improve medication adherence.

At the kickoff meeting, Elaine Linn, NCL Field Organizer for Sacramento, noted that there is no single nonadherent personality type and that many barriers to adherence exist. Linn said the campaign will emphasize the choice patients have in how they approach chronic disease. Patients can better understand and manage their disease, she added, by working with their healthcare professionals, which begins with taking their medications.Script Your Future is initially targeting 6 markets: Baltimore, Birmingham, Cincinnati, Providence, Raleigh, and Sacramento. The campaign in Sacramento features advertising in doctors’ offices, public service announcements about prescription packaging at pharmacies, displays at points of sale, and messages generated through local media outlets.

In May, NCL will hold a media event and webinar featuring U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Regina Benjamin.

The NCL has more than 80 committed campaign partners from leading healthcare, consumer, business, and pharmaceutical organizations, as well as government agencies and adherence researchers. For more information about Script Your Future, visit http://www.scriptyourfuture.org/hcp.