ABC Project – Ascertaining Barriers to Compliance: policies for safe, effective and cost-effective use of medicines in Europe

Nearly 50% of European patients receiving treatment for both chronic and acute conditions do not fully adhere to their prescribed treatment, that is, they do not take their medicines as recommended.

The health consequences of this phenomenon are very serious: ranging from unintended pregnancies resulting from inappropriate use of oral contraceptives, through transplant rejection due to irregular use of prescribed medicines, to death resulting from poor adherence to treatment for heart failure.

The financial consequences are equally important: patients who do not follow their prescribed treatment generate unnecessary costs related to diagnostic tests, additional medicines and hospitalisations, thereby reducing the resources available to treat other patients.

As part of the Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development, the European Commission decided to fund research that could contribute to the development of a European strategy to improve medication adherence and thereby increase the effectiveness of treatment while reducing its costs.

After two years of intensive preparation, the Medical University of Łódź became the coordinator of an international consortium that carried out a research project dedicated to this objective between 2009 and 2011. The research was conducted by the First Department of Family Medicine at the Medical University of Łódź.

This was a major achievement for the University, as it was the only project coordinated by a Polish institution in the field of health research within the Seventh Framework Programme at that time. It also demonstrated that a Polish institution could play a leading role in European scientific research.

The consortium also included institutions from Belgium (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven), Switzerland (Pharmionic Systems), and the United Kingdom (Bangor University, University of Aberdeen, and Keele University), while the project covered 16 European countries.

The results of the project were intended to have practical applications in health policy across the European Union and to be incorporated into the curricula of higher medical education institutions.

More information about the ABC Project is available in the Final Report>>

European Forum on Patient Adherence to Medication

Brussels, European Parliament, 8 December 2011