# Development of a novel medication adherability tool to improve cardiovascular disease management

> **NIH NIH K01** · BRIGHAM AND WOMEN'S HOSPITAL · 2022 · $143,581

## Abstract

Nearly half of patients with heart disease become non-adherent to their prescribed therapies within a year
of treatment initiation. This is a central and modifiable reason why cardiovascular disease remains a leading
cause of death in the US. Despite numerous attempts to develop interventions aimed at improving adherence,
these attempts have had varying and often limited success; one explanation could be that underlying barriers
to adherence are not being addressed. Those interventions that have been successful often make medications
easier to take but are frequently expensive to implement or deployed too late. Developing a novel provider-
facing intervention that modifies medication “adherability”, defined as the properties of medications that make
them difficult for patients to take, could be especially impactful and relatively inexpensive. For example, more
than 30% of patients report difficulties swallowing prescribed medicines, yet little is known how this
“adherability” affects long-term adherence and clinical outcomes, and few interventions focus on these issues.
 To this end, Dr. Lauffenburger’s K01 proposal incorporates a novel prophylactic, patient-centric approach
to provider behavior change for cardiovascular disease management. Providers often do not know what the
medications they prescribe actually look like or what aspects of the medications are acceptable to or preferred
by their patients. This study will uniquely incorporate patient perspectives about medication properties that lead
to poor adherence in the design of a scalable provider-facing clinical decision support intervention.
 The proposed aims are to: (1) develop a comprehensive framework of cardiovascular medication
properties, such as appearance, side-effect profiles, or dosing, that may lead to poor adherence using patient
focus groups; (2) rigorously evaluate their effects on adherence and clinical outcomes in large national data
sources; (3) develop and externally validate a novel clinical prediction rule for medication adherability; and (4)
develop and pilot test novel web- and electronic health record-based prescribing tools based on the prediction
rule for providers. The expected overall impact of this innovative proposal is that it will fundamentally advance
how to personalize medications for patients to ultimately improve adherence and health outcomes.
 Dr. Lauffenburger has a unique background as a practicing pharmacist trained in epidemiology with a
proven commitment to research. This proposal includes an educational plan that will address gaps in her
training: expertise in behavioral sciences, prediction modeling, and implementation research. The mentorship
team, led by Niteesh Choudhry, an expert in adherence and implementation, includes well-known experts in
cardiovascular trials (Elliott Antman, co-mentor), biostatistics (Robert Glynn, co-mentor), and behavioral
sciences (Daniel Solomon, co-mentor), and will ensure scientific success and training. By the c...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10375402
- **Project number:** 5K01HL141538-05
- **Recipient organization:** BRIGHAM AND WOMEN'S HOSPITAL
- **Principal Investigator:** Julie Christine Lauffenburger
- **Activity code:** K01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $143,581
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-04-17 → 2023-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10375402

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10375402, Development of a novel medication adherability tool to improve cardiovascular disease management (5K01HL141538-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10375402. Licensed CC0.

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