OBJECTIVES

: In the past, a large number of therapy adherence-promoting programs (APs) for chronically ill patients have been developed. Physicians` participation in an AP is crucial for its success, but engaging them in such activities is challenging. The main objective of this study was to investigate physicians’ views and preferences with regard to APs.

METHODS

: Physicians across Germany were invited to participate in a survey including a discrete choice experiment (DCE). The DCE consisted of 16 choice tasks based on five attributes – validation status of the AP (validated/non-validated), practice gets a certificate if it participates in the AP (yes/no), type of interventions applied (digital and physical patient tools/digital physician tools/combination of both), required time commitment of practice staff per patient and quarter (10 minutes staff/30 minutes staff/30 minutes physician) and quarterly compensation per patient (20€/50€/80€).

RESULTS

: So far, 175 physicians have completed the survey (mean age: 49.9 years; female: 37.4%; GPs/neurologists/cardiologists/ophthalmologists: 13.1%/47.4%/24.6%/14.9%).

Physicians strongly preferred programs requiring a minimum of time (10 minutes staff versus 30 minutes physician: utility=1.609;p<0.001) with a higher compensation (80€ versus 20€: utility=1.371;p<0.001). Furthermore, physician favored an AP that has already been shown to be effective instead of a non-validated program (utility=1.011;p<0.001). Type of interventions as well as the opportunity to get a certificate had no significant impact on physician preferences.

Physicians’ decisions to participate in an AP depended to 39.9% on the time commitment, to 37.7% on the compensation, and to 17.0% on the validation status. A non-validated program requiring a lot of time for implementation (30 minutes physician time per patient) would have to be compensated with €124.88 quarterly per patient to be accepted by a physician.

CONCLUSIONS

: Physicians’ willingness to participate in APs is substantially influenced by the required time to implement the AP, paid reimbursement, and a positive validation of the program.