Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment (Dec 2021)
Prescriber Attitudes, Experiences, and Proclivities Toward Digital Medicine and How They Influence Adoption of Digital Medicine Platforms
Abstract
Charles Ruetsch,1 Tigwa Davis,1 Joshua N Liberman,1 Dawn I Velligan,2 Delbert Robinson,3 Chris Jaeger,4 William Carpenter,5 Felica Forma6 1Health Analytics, LLC, Columbia, MD, USA; 2Department of Psychiatry, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA; 3Departments of Molecular Medicine and Psychiatry, The Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, Hempstead, NY, USA; 4JHC Solutions, LLC, San Francisco, CA, USA; 5Maryland Psychiatric Research Center, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA; 6Otsuka Pharmaceutical Development & Commercialization, Inc, Princeton, NJ, USACorrespondence: Charles RuetschHealth Analytics, LLC, 9200 Rumsey Road Suite 215, Columbia, MD, 21045, USATel +1 410-997-3314Email [email protected]: Psychiatric prescribers (prescribers) typically assess medication adherence by patient or caregiver self-report. Despite likely clinical benefit of a new digital medicine technology, the role of specific prescriber attitudes, behaviors, and experiences in the likelihood of adoption is unclear.Objective: To identify prescriber characteristics that may affect adoption of the ingestible event marker (IEM) platform.Design: A survey of prescribers treating seriously mentally ill patients was conducted. Factor analysis was performed on 11 items representing prescriber characteristics believed to be related to endorsement of the IEM platform. Four factors were extracted. Regression analysis was used to test the strength of the relationships between the factors and likelihood of adoption of the IEM platform.Results: A total of 131 prescribers completed the survey. Most (84%) agreed that visits allow enough time to monitor adherence. Factor analysis revealed four underlying dimensions: 1) perspectives on the value of adherence; 2) concerns about measuring adherence; 3) views toward digital health technologies; and 4) views on payer role/reimbursement. Factors 1 and 3 were related to gender, the belief that computerization benefits prescribers, the presence of office support staff, and the belief that new digital medicine (DM) technology will be cost prohibitive. Willingness to adopt the IEM platform was related to gender (p < 0.05) and perspectives on the value of adherence (p < 0.05), with those scoring higher on that measure also being more likely to adopt.Conclusion: Psychiatric prescribers are concerned about medication adherence, perceive current monitoring tools to be problematic, and are open to using digital technologies to improve accuracy of adherence assessment. Relationships among prescriber characteristics, beliefs, and experiences should be considered when developing educational materials, particularly when the goal is to encourage adoption and use of the IEM platform.Keywords: medication adherence, digital health technologies, antipsychotic, mental illness, personalized medicine, gender differences
