Het effect van electronisch gegenereerde feedback over reumageneesmiddelen bij patiënten met reumatoïde artritis

Increasing medication adherence in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) might reduce disease activity and the need to prescribe more expensive (biological) anti-rheumatic drugs. The usage of drug monitoring devices (like Medication Event Monitoring System (MEMS™)) combined with personal feedback regarding medication behavior has proven in other diseases like HIV to be an effective strategy to improve adherence and therefore clinical outcome, decrease drug changes and drug use.Although these studies suggest that electronic drug monitor feedback might have the potential to prevent unnecessary treatment escalation in rheumatoid arthritis patients with poor adherence, empirical evidence to prove this drug-/cost saving potential is lacking. Therefore, we aim to determine if the implementation of electronic drug monitoring adherence feedback in standard care for patients with rheumatoid arthritis starting with conventional anti-rheumatic drugs is effective on medication adherence compared to a usual care group.

Primary and secondary outcomes: T=0 en T=12 months

Sec outcomes: T=0, T=2 months, T=6 months, T=6 months, T=12 months

Patients in the intervention group receive their medication during 1 year in an electronic device. Before each regular (3-monthly) consult to the rheumatologist, patient's medication adherence will be assessed by reading out the electronic device and (if necessary) possible barriers to medication intake will be discussed with the pharmacist on a semi-structured way. Patients in the control group will receive standard care (an interview with the pharmacy consultant without electronic drug monitor feedback).