ENABLE

ABSTRACT

Due to an ageing society, there is a steady increase in chronic diseases and multi-morbidity in Europe. This rise of chronic diseases and multi-morbidity requires a multidisciplinary response, which often involves lifestyle changes combined with lifetime medication use.

Medication non-adherence affects however up to half of the chronic medication users, poses considerable challenges in managing chronic diseases, and is associated with almost 200,000 deaths and €80-125 billion of potentially preventable direct and indirect costs in Europe. Technological advances (e.g. smart pillboxes, digital inhalers, tracking devices, e-injection pens, e-Health, big data), have significant potential to support healthcare professionals and empower patients in detecting and managing non-adherence.

Awareness of healthcare professionals on the availability and implementation of adherence enhancing technology is limited and there is a lack of collaboration between stakeholders. Successful European-wide implementation of adherence enhancing technology is further hampered by a lack of insight in different European healthcare systems, reimbursement pathways and policy regulations that significantly differ between countries. This affects not only patients and healthcare professionals, but also manufacturers of technology (mostly SMEs) in their innovation capacity and competitiveness.

To address these challenges, the European Network to Advance Best practices & technoLogy on medication adherencE (ENABLE) aims to

(1) raise awareness of adherence enhancing technological solutions,

(2) foster and extend multidisciplinary knowledge on medication adherence at patient, treatment and system levels,

(3) accelerate translation of this knowledge to useful clinical application and

(4) work collaboratively towards economically viable implementation of adherence enhancing technology across European healthcare systems.