Verifying CAD Patient Medication Adherence

Coronary artery disease, which affects 16.8 million people in the US, is effectively managed by the long-term use of prescription medications. Many patients do not benefit optimally from these medications because 50~80% of them are nonadherent, which has shown to increase patient morbidity, decrease quality of life, and incur significant healthcare costs. Currently, there is no way for physicians to verify whether a patient has taken their medications. This is a problem because patients typically do not remember, and they tend to overreport adherence to make themselves look good, which gives physicians a skewed understanding of what patients are taking and sets the stage for prescription errors as well as missed treatment. Our team is developing a way to verify adherence while motivating patients in their pill taking routine in order to mitigate these aforementioned risks.