A lot of people (even some who are on the Organ Waiting List) mistakenly think that once the organ transplant surgery is over and a new "healthy organ" is working, the battle is won! That is just NOT so!
Cold hard fact is: If you mess up with your medications, you could lose the organ, which obviously requires another transplant, or you could wind up dead! Not a pretty picture.
So... Organ transplant recipients have a special need to be extremely compliant with their immunosuppressant medications to lessen the likelihood of organ rejection. Compliance and adherence is no small task for anyone, but when you consider that on average, they may be taking 12 to 20 different drugs every day, it's especially challenging for them!
As if the shear number of drugs weren't enough to deal with, there's an additional problem added to that scenario. The dosages and the drugs will change frequently in the first few months after surgery until the doctor finds the right combination and blood level balance to get the best outcome. It truly amazes me to think that anyone could successfully handle all of that with nothing more than a paper schedule and a will to live!
That daunting "life or death" need for compliance served as the motivation for my developing OnTimeRx reminder software in the first place. We have many devoted users of OnTimeRx software, who are transplant recipients, and I hear from them frequently.
A new OTRx user, with a new heart on 11/11/08, wrote me this week to say:
After my transplant I was not looking forward to having to type in all my new medical information on my tiny Phone keyboard, so I was very excited to find that there was a Windows version that can swap information back and forth. Especially since my meds keep changing (I certainly must be driving my Pharmacist and my Insurance company Nuts). I had 4 changes alone this week.
By the way when I take my Medication lists into the hospital with me (For my Biopsies). The list has received rave reviews, with the Nurses and doctors saying they wished more patients had this.
As a pharmacist and the OTRx designer, this is very rewarding but also very frustrating at the same time. I also wish more patients were using OnTimeRx so there would be more organs to go around for the 50- or 60-thousand people on the Transplant Waiting Lists.
Where are the drug companies who make the medications that keep these people alive? Why don't they provide this simple compliance tool as an incentive to keep patients alive? How do I get this message out?
On TV, patients are constantly being told to "Ask your doctor if this drug is "right for you"?...
Each transplant patient needs to start asking if all of these drugs are right for me, why can't I get OnTimeRx reminders to help me manage everything? The cost is so little and the rewards can be so great!
Talk to your doctor about OnTimeRx and ask him or her to talk to their drug company representatives, many of whom have "disposable funds" to use for less worthy projects than this.
Let's create some "buzz", people! Maybe we can get more people to sign the Organ Donor cards and while they're at it, even help people protect those precious organs - by talking about OnTimeRx which will enable them to improve medication compliance.
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