The B-SMART Appropriate Medication-Use Process: A Guide for Clinicians to Help Patients-Part 2: Adherence, Relationships, and Triage

“Increasing the effectiveness of adherence interventions is likely to have a far greater impact on health than any improvement in medical treatments, including highly promising advances in biomedical technology.”13 By identifying barriers that prevent patients from taking their medications as prescribed, by providing patients with targeted solutions to the identified barriers, by motivating and empowering patients, by providing tools to keep patients on track, and by referring patients to other services when needed to address other needs, we will significantly improve adherence to therapy plans and improve overall outcomes more than any one component alone. Part 2 completes this B-SMART approach to medication optimization, by discussing: adherence tools and reminders to keep patients on track; relationships: building positive relationships; and triage: direct patients’ medication management plan into the broader health care system.