Summary
HCPC-Europe’s 1st Conference on Compliance Enhanced Packaging
On September 27th , some of Europe’s leading experts in the matter of patient compliance came together in Brussels at the invitation of the Health Care Compliance Packaging Council Europe (HCPC-Europe), to discuss ways of improving patient adherence to medicinal therapy and the role packaging can play in this objective.
DDr. Raimund Sterz, head of outcomes research at Abbott, Ludwigshafen, Germany, pointed out that patients’ non compliance was neither a new nor an unexplored problem, but little progress had yet been made to resolve it. He spoke about the five column model and emphasized packaging as one of those elements that had an extremely important role to play.
Prof. Johann Matthias von der Schulenburg, Professor at the Leibnitz University of Hannover, emphasized the economic impact of patient compliance and the estimated costs of non compliance. He presented the approach of developing models for solutions.
The main message of Ron M.C. Herings’ presentation in his function as Director of the Pharmo Institute Utrecht, was the question as to how new drugs can contribute to better compliance, the use of the right medication and its effectiveness. Ron M.C. Herings gave an insight in the pharmaceutical investment loss and adverse drug reactions (ADR) incurred due to non compliance and bad persistence. He further showed examples of benefits resulting from fixed dose combinations (FDC), convenience of administration, special formulations of drugs for long term use and smart packaging, capable of preventing waste and reminding patients of their regimen.
Simon Fradd, British Medical Association, Chairman of the Pensions Committee, former Deputy Chairman of the General Practitioners Association of the UK, vividly involved the audience in his presentation about compliance. Having been a general practitioner for many years, Dr. Simon Fradd spoke about compliance problems from his own personal experience. He made it clear that bad compliance can start with poor communication between doctor and patient. His initial sentence “failure of compliance is a failure of communication” was illustrated by many real-life examples.
Anders Olauson, Chairman of the European Patient’s Forum Brussels, emphasized in his presentation the importance to “see” the needs of the patient and the position of the patient in the twenty-first century. This is a more knowledgeable and empowered patient, whose own understanding of his or her condition has more impact on compliance than ever before.
Colum Menzies Lowe, Head of Design and Human Factors at the National Patient Safety Agency, underlined in his presentation how packaging design can improve or jeopardise patient compliance. He focused on the aspect of patient safety, showing numerous examples of poor, unthinking design which could lead to medication errors and potential harm to patients.
Katrin Nink, member of the Wissenschafltiche Institut der AOK Germany, introduced a broad survey about the importance of package inserts and the current design of package leaflets. She underlined the importance of adequate knowledge of the risk of drug therapy. “A well informed and compliant patient” she emphasized, is the key in achieving a successful therapy and she ended her presentation with the statement: “When in doubt, it is the legal requirements that should be changed – not the consumer!”
Werner Gorath, Senior Market Research Manager Altana Pharma, underlined very clearly in his presentation that packaging design supports adherence and is capable of simplifying the regimen as much as possible. Customizing the regimen as well as reinforcing desirable behaviour can be achieved by packaging design.
In a lively panel discussion, all participants agreed that non-compliance was an issue of major concern, but that little progress had been achieved so far. This emphasized the need for action by a group like HCPC-Europe. Bringing together skills, knowledge and experience of all the stakeholders, HCPC-Europe could concentrate on the one topic where measurable changes could be achieved, namely by concentrating on packaging solutions to improve patient compliance.
All participants of the panel discussion explicitly expressed their wish to remain closely involved with HCPC-Europe’s future activities.