title: Health Information Technology: Meaningful Use and Next Steps to Improving Electronic Facilitation of Medication Adherence.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The use of health information technology (HIT) may improve medication adherence, but challenges for implementation remain.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this paper is to review the current state of HIT as it relates to medication adherence programs, acknowledge the potential barriers in light of current legislation, and provide recommendations to improve ongoing medication adherence strategies through the use of HIT.
  
  
  METHODS
  We describe four potential HIT barriers that may impact interoperability and subsequent medication adherence. Legislation in the United States has incentivized the use of HIT to facilitate and enhance medication adherence. The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) was recently adopted and establishes federal standards for the so-called "meaningful use" of certified electronic health record (EHR) technology that can directly impact medication adherence.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The four persistent HIT barriers to medication adherence include (1) underdevelopment of data reciprocity across clinical, community, and home settings, limiting the capture of data necessary for clinical care; (2) inconsistent data definitions and lack of harmonization of patient-focused data standards, making existing data difficult to use for patient-centered outcomes research; (3) inability to effectively use the national drug code information from the various electronic health record and claims datasets for adherence purposes; and (4) lack of data capture for medication management interventions, such as medication management therapy (MTM) in the EHR. Potential recommendations to address these issues are discussed.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  To make meaningful, high quality data accessible, and subsequently improve medication adherence, these challenges will need to be addressed to fully reach the potential of HIT in impacting one of our largest public health issues.
authors.affiliation: Duke University Medical Center, Department of Medicine, Durham, NC, United States. hayden.bosworth@duke.edu.
authors.forename: Hayden B
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6188-9825
authors.initials: HB
authors.lastname: Bosworth
authors.forename: Leah L
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6638-409X
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Zullig
authors.forename: Phil
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8436-5634
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Mendys
authors.forename: Michael
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7775-6266
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ho
authors.forename: Troy
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4872-3158
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Trygstad
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0045-3291
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Granger
authors.forename: Megan M
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4619-1784
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Oakes
authors.forename: Bradi B
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0828-6851
authors.initials: BB
authors.lastname: Granger
keywords: compliance; health information technology; medication adherence