Senior researcher Pharmaceutical Care
News
02-09-2021
Online platform Watchyourmeds is used by many pharmacies, ‘tailoring’ is a point of interest
Watchyourmeds, or in Dutch Kijksluiter.nl, is a Dutch medication information platform consisting of animated video’s that explain the most important information of prescriptions in an approachable way, both textually and visually. Most pharmacists offer the tool to their patients, specifically at first deposits. Point of improvement of Watchyourmeds lies in the better tailoring the tool to patients with limited health literacy. These are the main outcomes an evaluation study conducted by HU University of applied sciences Utrecht and Nivel.
Watchyourmeds consists of more than 10.000 animated videos. Each video presents the most important information of the package leaflet of one medication, in a visually supported, easy-to-understand spoken language. In 2019, Watchyourmeds was implemented on a large scale in Dutch pharmacies.
Fragment of the animation ‘Metformin’ on Kijksluiter.nl
Implementation is stimulated by financial incentives
The majority of the pharmacists surveyed, offered the tool to all of their patients, including patients with limited health literacy. The main reasons for offering Watchyourmeds to patients were the financial incentive provided by the health insurer and the tool being a relevant supplement to the existing medication information.
Patients’ lack of access to technology hinders implementation
Most patients were interested in using the tool and found it easy to use. According to the participating pharmacists, the main reasons why patients refused to use the tool were a lack of affinity with or access to the required technology.
Pharmacists’ evaluation of Watchyourmeds
- Participating pharmacists (n=140) value Watchyourmeds with a 6.7 out of 10.
- Over 85% is positive about the substantive quality and quantity of the video animations with information on medication.
- Eight out of ten pharmacists consider Watchyourmeds to be an added value in informing the patient at the counter.
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About this study
The research was conducted by the independent research institute Nivel and HU University of applied sciences Utrecht, with funding from the Dutch Stichting Kijksluiter. After designing an online questionnaire, pharmacist were invited to complete the online survey through email newsletters. In the end, 140 pharmacists completed the questionnaire.
This research project relates to Nivel's research program Pharmaceutical Care (lead by prof. Liset van Dijk, PhD).