OBJECTIVES: Several studies demonstrated that Medication Adherence Enhancing Interventions (MAEIs) such as patient counseling and home telemonitoring, might improve adherence outcomes, but existing evidence on the effectiveness of MAEIs is of poor quality. This project aimed to identify criteria for assessing the value of MAEIs.

METHODS: To identify and critically evaluate important criteria for the value assessment of MAEIs, focus groups involving academia, pharma, payers, and healthcare practitioners (HCPs) were conducted. Participants were presented with a list of criteria identified from a previously conducted systematic literature review (SLR) to evaluate them, identify any new criteria, and rank the 10 most important criteria from their perspectives.

RESULTS: Seventeen focus-group participants were recruited for this study; Academia (n = 4), Pharma (n = 4), HCPs (n = 5) and Payers (n = 4). Participants reviewed the 67 criteria from the SLR, and added 29 new criteria. Of these 96 criteria, only Disease Control and Safety/Adverse Reaction were ranked in the top 10 by 50% or more participants. Although 10 respondents ranked Safety/Adverse Reaction in the top 10, this criterion was overall the least important with an average score of 6.8/10 (1=Most Important; 10=Least Important). Medical/Pharmacy claims were ranked in the top 10 by six respondents, with the lowest average score of 4/10. The congruity of rankings varied among the four groups. For example, all academics rated Cost-Effectiveness in the top 10, but only 1-2 from each of the other groups did so. In contrast, Direct Medical Cost was not ranked at all by the academics but was ranked by 50% or more participants from the other groups.

CONCLUSIONS: Our study showed that while multiple potential outcomes can be measured to determine the effectiveness of MAEIs, Safety/Adverse Reaction and Disease Control were at the top of the list by stakeholders.