Kardas, PrzemyslawAguilar-Palacio, IsabelAlmada, MartaCahir, CaitrionaCosta, ElisioGiardini, AnnaMalo, SaraMassot Mesquida, MireiaMenditto, EnricaMidão, LuísParra-Calderón, Carlos LuisPepiol Salom, EnriqueVrijens, Bernard2023-01-102023-01-102020-08-27Kardas P, Aguilar-Palacio I, Almada M, Cahir C, Costa E, Giardini A, et al. The Need to Develop Standard Measures of Patient Adherence for Big Data: Viewpoint. J Med Internet Res. 2020 Aug 27;22(8):e181501439-4456http://hdl.handle.net/10668/4559Despite half a century of dedicated studies, medication adherence remains far from perfect, with many patients not taking their medications as prescribed. The magnitude of this problem is rising, jeopardizing the effectiveness of evidence-based therapies. An important reason for this is the unprecedented demographic change at the beginning of the 21st century. Aging leads to multimorbidity and complex therapeutic regimens that create a fertile ground for nonadherence. As this scenario is a global problem, it needs a worldwide answer. Could this answer be provided, given the new opportunities created by the digitization of health care? Daily, health-related information is being collected in electronic health records, pharmacy dispensing databases, health insurance systems, and national health system records. These big data repositories offer a unique chance to study adherence both retrospectively and prospectively at the population level, as well as its related factors. In order to make full use of this opportunity, there is a need to develop standardized measures of adherence, which can be applied globally to big data and will inform scientific research, clinical practice, and public health. These standardized measures may also enable a better understanding of the relationship between adherence and clinical outcomes, and allow for fair benchmarking of the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of adherence-targeting interventions. Unfortunately, despite this obvious need, such standards are still lacking. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to call for a consensus on global standards for measuring adherence with big data. More specifically, sound standards of formatting and analyzing big data are needed in order to assess, uniformly present, and compare patterns of medication adherence across studies. Wide use of these standards may improve adherence and make health care systems more effective and sustainable.enAtribución 4.0 Internacionalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Patient adherenceBig dataMetricsConsensusHealth careElectronic health recordMedication adherenceCooperación del pacienteMacrodatosBenchmarkingConsensoAtención a la saludRegistros electrónicos de saludSistemas informatizados de historias clínicasAdhesión a la medicaciónMedical Subject Headings::Organisms::Eukaryota::Animals::Chordata::Vertebrates::Mammals::Primates::Haplorhini::Catarrhini::Hominidae::HumansMedical Subject Headings::Psychiatry and Psychology::Behavior and Behavior Mechanisms::Behavior::Health Behavior::Patient ComplianceMedical Subject Headings::Analytical, Diagnostic and Therapeutic Techniques and Equipment::Investigative Techniques::Epidemiologic Methods::Epidemiologic Study Characteristics as Topic::Epidemiologic Studies::Case-Control Studies::Retrospective StudiesMedical Subject Headings::Health Care::Health Care Quality, Access, and Evaluation::Quality of Health Care::Health Care Evaluation Mechanisms::Program Evaluation::BenchmarkingMedical Subject Headings::Psychiatry and Psychology::Behavior and Behavior Mechanisms::Psychology, Social::Group Processes::ConsensusMedical Subject Headings::Analytical, Diagnostic and Therapeutic Techniques and Equipment::Investigative Techniques::Epidemiologic Methods::Epidemiologic Study Characteristics as Topic::Epidemiologic Studies::Case-Control Studies::Retrospective StudiesMedical Subject Headings::Phenomena and Processes::Physiological Phenomena::Physiological Processes::Growth and Development::AgingMedical Subject Headings::Analytical, Diagnostic and Therapeutic Techniques and Equipment::Investigative Techniques::Epidemiologic Methods::Data Collection::Records as Topic::Medical Records::Medical Records Systems, Computerized::Electronic Health RecordsMedical Subject Headings::Information Science::Information Science::Medical Informatics::Medical Informatics Applications::Information Systems::Medical Records Systems, ComputerizedMedical Subject Headings::Health Care::Health Care Quality, Access, and Evaluation::Delivery of Health Care::Attitude to Health::Patient Acceptance of Health Care::Patient Compliance::Medication Adherencereview article32663138open access10.2196/181501438-8871PMC7484771