Innovative medication adherence platform in a real-world hospital setting to reduce anxiety in users of mental health services.
Belgium-based AARDEX Group, the global leader in Digital Adherence Monitoring Software, today announced they have joined the IT4Anxiety project – supporting the implementation of innovative solutions to reduce the anxiety of patients with neurodegenerative diseases or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
AARDEX® Group leads one of 10 innovative solutions being developed as part of the project. They will enroll their medication adherence hardware and software solutions, already in use in clinical trials, in a Belgian hospital setting for monitoring medication adherence in daily clinical practice.
Antoine Pironet, Medical Data Scientist, AARDEX Group, comments: “This project is the opportunity to leverage 30 years of proven adherence monitoring technology in drug discovery, to the daily practice offering a data-driven and scientifically-sound adherence management solution to improve patients’ lives.”
Bernard Vrijens, Scientific Lead, AARDEX® Group adds “Anxiety is often associated with the diagnosis and management of a disease, particularly in degenerating or life-threatening diseases. Therefore, I am very pleased that AARDEX engages in this project to empower patients for better treatments. "
People with dementia or cognitive impairment are a population that is particularly impacted by non-adherence to medication compared to cognitively intact populations. Older adults with Alzheimer’s are one of the most impacted subpopulations. This necessitates the need for more support for patients within these populations to ensure that they take their medications and as a result, experience the therapeutic effects that were intended upon prescribing the therapy.
By deploying a mature solution, already used in clinical trials, AARDEX® will be able to rapidly identify when patients need an adherence intervention in daily practice. Access to both software and hardware solutions, which include connected , will allow automatic detection of specific adherence behaviors to improve caregiver screening, cues for intervention strategies, and self-intervention strategies for patients. The aim of this usability study, initially targeting 100 patients, is to observe how people interact with the solution, so it can be individualized for future patients.
Such technological solutions can also effectively complement conventional medical protocols as ‘blended therapies’, which are the heart of the approach developed in the project.