Artificial intelligence-based tools for patient support to enhance medication adherence: a focused review

Area of Science:

• Digital Health
• Artificial Intelligence in Medicine
• Patient Adherence

Background:

• Medication adherence is crucial for treatment efficacy.
• Medication intake errors pose significant risks to patient safety.
• Artificial intelligence (AI) offers novel approaches to enhance medication management.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the contribution of AI-based tools to medication adherence insights.
• To assess the potential of AI in preventing medication intake errors.
• To review current evidence on AI applications in patient medication use.

Main Methods:

• Systematic review of studies utilizing AI for medication adherence and error prevention.
• Searches conducted across six databases in August 2024.
• Risk of bias assessed using ROB2 and ROBINS1 tools.

Main Results:

• Seven studies were included, with moderate to high risk of bias.
• AI-based tools demonstrated improvements in medication adherence from 6.7% to 32.7% in randomized trials.
• Digital interventions with real-time monitoring showed potential for alerting to self-medication errors.

Conclusions:

• AI-powered smart systems show promise for improving patient medication use.
• Current evidence is limited but suggests AI's potential in enhancing adherence.
• Future research should explore AI's role in cognitive behavioral approaches for patient engagement.