Jordan Axelrad, MD, MPH: Addressing Nonadherence to IBD Therapies with Remote Monitoring

Suboptimal adherence to medical therapies for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is common and frequently linked to adverse outcomes, but findings from a recent study suggest the value of a novel monitoring technology, Tappt, for improving adherence and clinical outcomes.

Preliminary data from the ongoing 12-month, multicenter study were presented at the American College of Gastroenterology (ACG) 2024 Annual Scientific Meeting in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, by Jordan Axelrad, MD, MPH, co-director of the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Center at NYU Langone Health, and showed high medication adherence and improvement in various patient-reported outcomes with use of the monitoring platform.

“Patients are provided a smart label to attach their pill bottle or their injection kit, and then, using a smartphone, they tap every time they're going to take their medication,” Axelrad explained to HCPLive. “Patient-reported outcome questionnaires are sent to patients as well, so not only are we tracking real-time adherence, but also how patients are feeling in real-time.”

Findings presented at ACG included the first 128 patients enrolled in the trial who were randomly assigned to the remote monitoring platform or standard care. Results showed 85% adherence in the Tappt group and pointed to greater improvement in patient-reported outcomes among those with high (>80%) adherence during the first 3 months of follow-up. Additionally, most patients reported Tappt was easy to use and indicated they were aided by medication reminders.

Axelrad added that he and the other study investigators are looking to add more sites to the study, which currently includes 5 tertiary referral centers, and improve the study’s patient population to be more diverse.

“One of the aspects of the study that we're also collecting is barriers to adherence beyond just young people not wanting to inject medication or not remembering to take medication,” Axelrad said. “I think that that's really the next step – not just identifying the barriers, but understanding how we can create interventions to bridge those barriers.”

Editors' note: Axelrad has relevant disclosures with Abbvie, Adiso, Biomerieux, BMS, Genentech, Janssen, Pfizer, and others.

Reference

^{Axelrad J, Sapir T, Horst SN, et al. P2559 - A Novel Remote Patient and Medication Monitoring Solution to Improve Adherence and PerSiStence With Inflammatory Bowel DiSease Therapy: Updates from the ASSIST Study}