Varolii and Vitality Introduce Real-Time Phone Polling to Further Improve Patient Medication Adherence

SEATTLE-November 3, 2010 - Varolii Corporation and Vitality, Inc., today announced the addition of new interactive phone polling functionality to their highly successful solution that helps address the billion-dollar medication adherence problem nationwide. This real-time feature enables healthcare providers to immediately identify why a client has not taken his or her medication, and then immediately address the reason for poor adherence. An independent study conducted by the Center for Connected Health showed a 27 point increase from a control group using no interactive features to a group using the Varolii-Vitality solution.

At the heart of the solution is the Vitality GlowCap, a wireless, Internet-connected bottle cap that fits on a standard pharmacy bottle and uses light and sound to prompt the patient when it's time to take the medication inside. If the bottle is not opened within a few hours of the dose time, Varolii's automated communications platform triggers a phone call or sends a text message to the client. In addition, clients can refill their prescription by pushing a dedicated button on the bottom of each GlowCap. When clients push the refill button, a cellular signal is immediately sent to the designated pharmacy to request a refill.

Prescription non-adherence costs the healthcare system an estimated $290 billion annually, and much of this is directly linked to people either not taking the medications prescribed to them correctly, or not taking them at all. With more than 50 percent of the U.S. population taking at least one prescription medication and 3.5 billion prescriptions written by doctors each year, the impact of non-adherence is significant.

Now, healthcare providers are able to track a client's pill-taking habits day by day, to provide reminders and encouragement on the days people need support, not weeks and weeks after doses are missed. Real-time feedback has been shown to help people with conditions like diabetes, heart disease, HIV, cancer, and organ transplants stick to important medication schedules. With the Vitality GlowCap program, each person receives an automated, personalized call via Varolii two hours after missing a dose. The client receives a phone call and is prompted to answer the following:

  • Do you need a refill?
  • Are you traveling or away from your medication?
  • Are you having trouble paying for your medication?
  • Do you believe you no longer need to take this medication?
  • Are you having side effects or other issues?

This information may be shared with the pharmacist, prescribing physician, or other healthcare professionals to address the reasons for non-adherence.  For example, if a patient is having unpleasant side effects, the physician can confirm the patient is taking the medication correctly and potentially adjust the dosage or even prescribe a different medication.

"GlowCaps are the first smart medication packaging with real-time data," said David Rose, CEO of Vitality.  "The ability to begin a proactive dialogue and immediately address the reasons for poor adherence at the decisional moment is a game-changer for this industry."

Vitality GlowCaps are designed especially for people challenged with managing chronic diseases like hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol, and depression, where maintaining high adherence to a prescribed regimen of medications is critical for long-term health. With the addition of Varolii's proactive communications platform, the GlowCaps provide additional support for patients in a personalized, yet cost-effective way.

"The Varolii communications platform generates valuable, benchmark data for doctors, pharmacies and drug makers in order to better understand how people take different types of medications," said Kate McArdle, vice president of product management at Varolii. "The result, according to a recent independent study conducted by the Center for Connected Health, is a 27 percent increase over traditional adherence rates with the use of the GlowCaps and the real-time communications."

Participants in a randomized six-month longitudinal study by the Center for Connected Health, a division of Partners Healthcare, achieved adherence rates of 98 percent ,significantly higher than the control group, which had an adherence rate of 71 percent.

About Varolii Corporation
Varolii is the market and technology leader in smart, automated communications. Its on-demand communication solutions help organizations easily and effectively reach and interact with large numbers of customers and employees, reducing operational costs and improving service. Varolii provides the industry's only cross-channel communications technology, which blends voice, SMS and email into a single conversation and provides recipients with multiple options to take action. At the heart of the on-demand platform is Varolii IDTM, which automatically analyzes each recipient's past responses to personalize future communications. With Varolii, organizations can execute true 1-to-1 communication on a large scale, achieving better results from fewer notifications. More than 380 companies trust Varolii to send over four million communications every business day. For more information, visit www.varolii.com.
About Vitality
Vitality solves the billion-dollar adherence problem for pharmaceutical companies, retail pharmacies, and healthcare providers. Leveraging the best research on behavioral economics, Vitality's wireless GlowCaps motivate people to take their medications as prescribed using social feedback, reminders, caregiver support, and automated pharmacy refills. www.vitality.net

# # #

Media Contacts:

Robin Rees
Varolii Corporation
206.902.3944
[email protected]

 

Jessica Kendall
Edelman PR
206.268.2231
[email protected]