Med-Tech Innovation Design
Designing Devices FOR HUMANS
Steve May-Russell of Smallfry looks at why medical devices that have been designed around user needs will result in better compliance.
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oncompliance is a major obstacle to the effective delivery of healthcare. More people are regularly relying on prescribed medication, but many are failing to take it as
directed. According to the World Health Organisation, only approximately 50% of patients with chronic illnesses living in developed countries take life-saving medication as prescribed.1
A number of factors contribute to
noncompliance including lack of education about the treatment, cost, poor communication and the actual experience of using the medical device itself. Failure to follow treatment regimes as directed leads
26 ¦ November/December 2011
to a significant drain on healthcare resources. For example, noncompliance of diabetes treatment could result in a patient being hospitalised for nerve damage or kidney failure. Recent estimates from Diabetes UK (
www.diabetes.org.uk) show that 10% of NHS spending goes on diabetes, that is £9 billion a year. This can be improved if diabetes medication is taken as directed. Evidence of noncompliance is shown in the
adherence dashboard analysis based on patient-level data from National Data Corp. (
www.mekesson.com) (Figure 1).2
It shows that compliance rates vary by therapy, but generally follow a similar pattern. The findings
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