title: Improving adherence to acne treatment: the emerging role of application software.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine recent studies on the effect of mobile and electronic (ME)-health technology on adherence to acne treatment.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  With emerging use of ME-health technology, there is a growing interest in evaluating the effectiveness of the tools on medication adherence. Examples of ME-health technology-based tools include text message-based pill reminders and Web-based patient education.
  
  
  METHODS
  MEDLINE, Cochrane Library, and Web of Science were searched for articles on adherence to acne treatment published through November 2013. A combination of search terms such as "acne" and "adherence" or "compliance" were used.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Adherence to oral acne medication was higher than for topical acne medication. The frequency of office visits was also an influencing factor for acne treatment adherence. The telephone-based reminders on a daily basis did not improve acne patients' medication adherence, whereas the Web-based educational tools on a weekly basis had a positive effect on medication adherence in acne treatment.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In using ME-health interventions, factors such as medication dosage forms, frequency of intervention, and patients' preferences should be taken into consideration. Developing disease-specific text message reminders may be helpful to increase adherence rates. In addition, a combination of text message reminders with another type of intervention may improve medication adherence.
authors.affiliation: College of Pharmacy, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA.
authors.forename: Chanhyun
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Park
authors.affiliation: College of Pharmacy, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA.
authors.forename: Gilwan
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: College of Pharmacy, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
authors.forename: Isha
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Patel
authors.affiliation: McWhorter School of Pharmacy, Samford University, Birmingham, AL, USA.
authors.forename: Jongwha
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.affiliation: College of Pharmacy, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
authors.forename: Xi
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Tan
keywords: acne vulgaris; application software; compliance; medication adherence; mobile and electronic health technology; telemedicine