In spite of MDS becoming common parlance in caring circles, myths about what monitored dosage systems can and can’t do continue to muddy the waters among decision-makers. As technology continues to progress apace, the creator of the first ever monitored dosage system, Norman Niven of Protomed, brings us up to speed on the truths and myths of MDS and the relationship between compliance and dementia care.

That smart technology could save the NHS £billions is not disputed. The very real danger is that the recommendations being made today (and being budgeted for out of our taxes, now) simply won’t be relevant by the time they are implemented. And there lies the challenge for the public sector, and the NHS specifically. Many commentators have previously identified that Government projects follow Parliamentary timescales and agendas, yet few have the ideas, the solutions and the conviction to propose tangible actions that will make a difference to us all in the short and medium term. Edward Shropshire of Aquarium Software looks at the NHS vision and how to best implement it.

What if there was an ethical way to engage with individual patients using tools they are already comfortable with and processes that will in any case be mandatory in pharmacies and production plants? It would certainly be a great place to look for new gains in compliance and persistence. Mark Davison of Blue Sphere Health argues in this article that one of these new processes – pack-level serialisation – will have multiple benefits for health outcomes as well as for product security.

Changing the focus of how healthcare is delivered has become an imperative for developed economies. These changes are exemplified by the pace of reform that is happening in both the US and the UK. With ever greater proportions of national gross domestic product being spent on healthcare, and an ageing population, it is clear the status quo is no longer an option if we are to remain economically viable nations. Legislation through the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in America, and the Health and Social Care Bill in the UK, both have at their heart a fundamental shift in how providers of care need to operate. Peter Mills of nGage Health explains that the central tenet of reform is the migration away from an episodic, transactional approach to healthcare delivery, to one where greater emphasis is placed on total population cost containment and demonstrable outcomes.

Patients with psychosis, such as schizophrenia, often suffer from poor life quality, deteriorated functional capacity, and the burden of social stigma and other socioeconomic pressures. Even though pharmacological treatment may provide psychotic patients relief from disturbing symptoms and enable them to gain greater control over and satisfaction with their lives, a huge percentage of them fail to comply with it during part or all of the process. Zoe Tziakou and Constantina Georgaki of PCC HELLAS explain why now is the time to turn to a multidisciplinary approach through coordinated action by health professionals, researchers and policy-makers to achieve better benefits for all concerned.

Sleep disorders may range from the familiar insomnia, to the less frequent narcolepsy, with many other types in between, identified for their medical and psychological morbidity. Inasmuch as hypnosis employs the power that may be exerted by the mind to influence the actions of the body, a skilfully prepared hypnosis can be an effective therapeutic treatment for those variations of sleep disorder that respond to such. For disorders of a more organic nature, medicinal preparations or procedures may prove to be the desired treatment, or a combination of treatments may be called for. Richard A. Blumenthal, a New York State Licensed Mental Health Counsellor focuses on the use of hypnosis capable of helping a patient who is experiencing difficulty with some aspects of what one would expect to be healthy sleeping habits.

Increasingly, all phases of clinical research rely on patient- reported outcomes to provide accurate information on the status of a patient’s health condition and how they are being affected by certain treatments. Used widely to support post- marketing labelling claims, PROs give researchers invaluable information on the effects of a drug. Electronic data collection facilitates secure, instantaneous monitoring, as well as providing the ability to track and trace trials in real time, allowing sponsors to identify and respond to any concerns as they occur. This article by Tim Davis of Exco InTouch and Tony Kane of Vodafone Global Enterprise focuses on the rise of mobile technology in the ePRO arena. It looks at how its deployment can aid cost-efficiency and secure patient adherence to medication regimes, particularly within global clinical trials.

With about 80 per cent of chronic patients online in a global digitally networked society, new paradigms and methods evolve when talking about patient adherence programmes. The tailoring of content, the wisdom of the crowd effect, or the online community of practice phenomena are examples of new qualities of the mass medium called “internet”. Alexander Schachinger of healthcare42.com analyses that what the media and FMCG economies already use on a daily basis has not even been understood in the healthcare sector, as regards the huge potential which rests here in improving patient adherence.

The issue of patient adherence is complex and involves interacting dimensions of patient-related factors, social/ economic factors, condition-related factors, therapy-related factors, and health system/healthcare team factors. In other words, the nature of the adherence beast is multi-faceted and inherently interdisciplinary. Expert advice informing best practices to improve patient adherence is needed from healthcare-related clinicians, mental health experts, sociologists, social workers, epidemiologists, health-related researchers, and policy-makers. Miki Peer of MEMOTEXT 30 Corporation argues that a more appropriate term for how adherence should be properly viewed then may be transdiciplinary, i.e. adherence requires a holistic approach, one that seeks to integrate knowledge from all related disciplines into a coherent whole.

It is becoming increasingly obvious that patients are a vast, untapped resource for healthcare professionals. Provided with the appropriate tools, patients could be doing a lot of useful work before they even arrive at their consultation. Rather than complaining about patients coming in with lists or printouts, doctors should be channelling their patients’ energy and motivation into saving them time and making the consultation more productive and, therefore, satisfying. Jason Maude of Isabel Healthcare Ltd. explains why the proponents of patient engagement should realise that an engaged patient must also be an informed and empowered patient, and tools must be provided to the patient to help them make sense of the information.