Adherence, Avatars and Where to From Here

Adherence to medication and treatment regimen continues to rank as one of the major clinical problems worldwide. Many of the currently available strategies lack the personalised interaction needed in order to effectively connect with the patients. Our solution is to develop an interactive avatar-based reminder application to simulate a human carer to provide customised conversations with the aim of improving adherence and satisfaction. The results of our initial trial showed that information and communication provided by the avatar were useful in reminding participants to take their health supplements. This paper discusses the importance of personalised communication and information in improving adherence and satisfaction, what we have learned from our initial trial with the avatar-based reminder application, and our proposed modifications for our next trial.