Dr Paul Ciechanowski Explains How Care Coordination Improves Medication Adherence

Much of care coordination efforts for diabetes entail having the extra personnel to more closely manage patients and their behaviors, which in turn can improve medication adherence, said Paul Ciechanowski, MD, MPH, associate professor at the University of Washington.

“For years we’ve been doing research on [care coordination programs] and talking about what we should do and now finally, systems are moving to where we’re actually going to support this,” Dr Ciechanowski said. “We’re actually going to have people on the front lines who can change the trajectory of patients on their medications.”

He explained that care coordination managers will not only better understand how the patient is taking the medication but the patient will also better understand why he or she may be taking it and what can be done differently to improve adherence.