RESUMO
OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of the MD.2 Personal Medication System (MD.2) on patient medication adherence and refill persistence. DESIGN: Open noncontrolled case series. SETTING: Community pharmacy. PATIENTS: Three patients with a documented history of poor medication adherence and persistence. INTERVENTION: MD.2 placed in patients' homes for 3 months. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Medication adherence (doses taken at prescribed times) and persistence (refills obtained at correct times) assessed before and after installation of MD.2. RESULTS: Installation of MD.2 resulted in medication adherence rates of greater than 99% in all three patients. Refill persistence rates improved in both patients who needed refills during the study period. Missed doses and other problems were mostly due to caregiver error in filling or programming MD.2. CONCLUSION: The MD.2 Personal Medication System had a positive effect on medication adherence and persistence in these three patients. Training and selection of caregivers may be especially important for effective use of the machine. Larger studies will be needed to validate these results.