More than half of patients with prescriptions for cardiovascular medications do not take their medications as prescribed. These patients are at greater risk of death and comorbid conditions and have higher healthcare costs. Strategies to improve medication adherence have had mixed results. Meanwhile, advances in mobile and digital technologies for health promotion and disease self-management offer new opportunities to influence patients’ health behaviors and improve health outcomes.

“One of the real benefits of using technology is that it can be widely disseminated. Studying that dissemination process is really where we are in the field. So a pragmatic trial makes a lot of sense.” — Sheana Bull, PhD, MPH

The NIH Collaboratory is pleased to welcome the Personalized Patient Data and Behavioral Nudges to Improve Adherence to Chronic Cardiovascular Medications (Nudge) study to its portfolio of NIH Collaboratory Trials. The Nudge study will use mobile phone text messages and an artificial intelligence chatbot to deliver behavioral “nudges” to patients to improve medication adherence. The study will access population-level pharmacy data in 3 integrated healthcare delivery systems to test the effectiveness of the nudges on adherence and outcomes among patients with chronic cardiovascular conditions who take medications to treat hypertension, atrial fibrillation, coronary artery disease, diabetes, or hyperlipidemia.

The Nudge study is led by co–principal investigators Drs. Sheana Bull and Michael Ho of the University of Colorado with support from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Watch a video interview with Drs. Bull and Ho, and read more about Nudge.