Effective compliance monitoring and cost savings can be achieved by using Stora Enso Pharma's DDSi intelligent packaging solution with outpatients, a pilot study with patients has revealed.
The study was conducted at Kuopio University Hospital, Finland, with patients receiving opioid substitution treatment. During the four weeks of the study, the patients visited the clinic at weekly intervals and received their medication for six days in a Pharma DDSi package. Patients' compliance was monitored using the package, which recorded the time of removal of the tablets from the package and stored information on the patient's subjective symptoms each day. The study showed a reduction in treatment costs of nearly 40%.
"The Pharma DDSi packaging solution seems to provide several advantages for compliance-monitoring in opioid substitution patients and was accepted positively by our patients and staff," said Dr Ulrich Tacke, who led the study. "Cost savings of up to Euro 500 per patient each week would occur if the daily attendance for supervised drug-administration were to be entirely replaced by take-home medication using the Pharma DDSi package."
The Pharma DDSi package includes a locking mechanism and its size and inner design can be modified for various blisters or other inserts. In the pilot study, the package was considered easier and safer than a sachet, since blisters could be left intact. Treatment staff as well as patients regarded the locking system as a significant improvement. Results showed that the majority of patients (67%) took their medication regularly as prescribed.
"The pioneering study by Dr. Tacke and his team shows how intelligent packaging can amend the treatment of outpatients," said Sari Haekli, sales manager at Stora Enso Carton Board. "Non-compliance endangers treatment, increases the street supply of diverted drugs and undermines the reputation of treatment services. Pharma DDSi provides the market's most advanced solution to these problems."
In the next phase, Dr Tacke and Stora Enso are planning to arrange compliance-monitoring on a daily basis, using the Pharma DDSi package together with data readers at patients' homes and transmission of information in real-time, which would enable treatment staff to contact the patient within hours of any irregularity in administering the drugs.
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