Compliance packaging: a patient education tool.

As a direct response to the profound negative impact that the high rate of noncompliance is having on therapeutic efficacy and total health-care costs, some pharmaceutical manufacturers have taken steps to develop compliance packaging for some products prescribed for ambulatory patients. The purpose of compliance packaging is to serve as a patient-education tool for health professionals and to make it easier for patients to remember to take their medications correctly at home. The ideal compliance package will be developed according to patient-education guidelines. Compliance packaging holds promise as a significant patient-education tool when health professionals combine it with personalized patient counseling and well-written medication instructions. Well-controlled cost-effectiveness studies are needed to determine the impact of compliance packaging on reducing total health-care costs.