The impact of daily text message reminders on medication adherence in healthy volunteers and patients with coronary artery disease

BACKgRound: Rates of medication nonadherence are high, which can lead to disease progression, disability and death. oBjeCTive: To test a potential solution to improve adherence to medications using a novel computer-based text message reminder system. MeThods: An automated computer program to send text messages to cell phones was developed. In phase 1, the reliability of the system was tested by sending text messages four times daily for two months to four volunteers. In phase 2, 20 healthy volunteers were asked to take a placebo at four prespecified times per day for one week with text message reminders and one week without. In Phase 3, 30 random, stable cardiac patients were recruited and instructed to take and record medications according to their own regimen for one month with text message reminders and one month without.