MyPrescription

Twinning solution

mHealth tool for prescription adherence

Twinning type

Partial adoption

Main policy priority

Digital tools for citizen empowerment and for person-centred care

Originator

Fundación Pública Andaluza Progreso y Salud (Spain)

Adopter(s)

Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria Federico II (Italy)

Short description

MyPrescription is an app of the Public Health System of Andalusia (SSPA) allowing simple self-management and monitoring of the health plan and medication prescribed by a medical professional. With MyPrescription patients can access a tab of the medication and they are offered the possibility of scheduling notices of the shots. In addition, MyPrescription offers a barcode reader to access all the information about a medication.
The aim of this twinning is to set up a pilot model in the adopter’s region that can be scaled up to the entire regional health system through the ProMIS@Campania network for the internationalization of the regional health system. This approach will help patients to improve adherence to prescriptions and to prevent adverse events. At the same time, the twinning will provide the opportunity to progress in the integration and interoperability of Campania information platform, SINFONIA, which represents a major step forward in the field of mHealth for the regional health system, in line with the commitments of the region towards the Ministry of Health.
It is expected that this ICT tool should have an impact on health outcomes as well as ignite the change management process to improve the appropriateness of prescriptions or stimulate medication review.

News

Improving patient adherence to treatment with the help of the DHE Twinning MyPrescription

The DHE Twinning MyPrescription is the result of collaboration between the Public Health System of Andalusia (SSPA), Spain and the Federico II University Hospital, Italy, with a goal of improving the management of patients’…

Twinning activities

The DigitalHealthEurope twinning MyPrescription’s work plan was divided into 4 work packages aimed at adopting the MyPrescription solution in the Campania Region. These include a work package on the general coordination of activities (management) and 3 work packages on the various phases of implementation of the study activities and adoption of the solution.

Outcomes

The study is currently ongoing. At the time of writing, 7 patients have been enrolled: Two of them completed the study with a system-usability-scale (SUS) total score of 80 and 97.5, respectively; two patients are pending to return their SUS; one patient did not use the app; one patient was recruited while he was waiting to be visited by the doctors but he immediately exited from the study since all drugs were withdrawn during the visit. The twinning partners will continue recruiting patients until the planned sample size is reached.

Added value and benefits

The Unit of Pharmacology at the Federico II University Hospital has a longstanding expertise on the optimisation of adherence and drug therapy and operates therapeutic drug monitoring for patients admitted to the hospital. In addition, it hosts a consultation service for Medication Use Review and Reconciliation in patients on polypharmacy (especially for older adults and patients with heart diseases) that represents an operational tool to test MyPrescription’s performance in prescription adherence. In Andalusia, the MyPrescription solution is integrated into the region’s electronic prescription system and is linked to the database of drugs available in the region. After the implementation of Campania’s context analysis, all this could not be developed through the twinning due to the short duration and the limited financial resources available. During the site visit, the twinning partners decided to switch from MiPrescripción to Recuerdamed to avoid the difficulties associated with integration with the electronic health record or ePrescription system.

Barriers and success factors

A major limitation in approaching these problems and at the same time probably the major unmet need is the large delay of Regione Campania in aligning with the process of digital health implementation that is going on across Italy, which has been caused both by economical and political difficulties in recent years. Because of these problems the personal health record (PHR) is at its down in Campania and FOUND still does not have fully digital health records.

Outlook

The twinning partners estimate that the app could be considered suitable for further clinical development if the minimum sample size of 55 patients (60 considering an expected 10% drop-out from the study) for the study was reached. The study is ongoing and the partners will continue to recruit patients until the planned sample size is reached.

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