The Evaluation of Web-based Software for Sending Medication Adherence Reminders in Infectious Disease Patients

Incomplete drug adherence can cause problems for patients as well as physicians and cost billions of dollars each year throughout the globe. One of the tools that can help patients and physicians is short text messaging (SMS). This research aims to design and implement the first web-based software specified for medicine use in Iran and test its feasibility to send short message reminders to infectious disease patients and also patient acceptance، and satisfaction. In this qualitative action research، initially a software was designed for sending text messages to patients and then 30 patients were chosen purposefully in four weeks and were sent short text messages exactly based on clinicians’ prescribed order. After completing a treatment course، each patient was interviewed and questions were asked to assess patient’s satisfaction. The result showed that all of the patients who received the text messages، believed that this method in comparison to their previous experience has helped them to use their medicine on time and correctly and they were keen to use this service in the future. Short text messaging can be used as an effective tool to remind patients to take their medicine correctly، and increase their satisfaction and compliance. Key words: Reminder system، Drug utilization، Text messaging، Cellular phone، Infectious diseases