Patients 'overconfident' in operating medical devices

New research finds that patients with chronic diseases are overly confident when it comes to administering their own medication using drug delivery devices, despite having little training on how to use them correctly.

A survey conducted by Team Consulting looked at patient and doctor attitudes towards healthcare showed patients suffering from chronic conditions are overconfident when it comes to administering drug delivery devices and believe minimal training is required.

The study looked at a range of drug delivery device options, and in many cases, patients felt that they would not require training or support to use the device correctly. 85% of patients using wearable patches believed minimal training would be required, 63% using injector pens and 50% of patients using needles and syringes.

Overconfidence in using drug delivery devices could result in incorrect usage of the medical device which in turn would result in inaccurate dosage or even no delivery of the drug at all.

The study also looked at the opinions of the doctors who are treating these patients who are far less confident in their patients’ ability to quickly understand the devices they are using.

When it comes to using such devices as a needle and syringe and wearable pumps, doctors believe up to four sessions would be required in order to fully understand their usage.

This is demonstrated in the results found in the study, as when it comes to using a needle and syringe, 24% of doctors believed that minimal training was required in comparison to 50% of patients and only 10% of doctors thought minimal training would be needed for wearable pumps, in contrast to 49% or patients.

Diane Aston-James, Managing Consultant at Team Consulting, said: “I find the patient confidence levels very interesting, and a little alarming. Correct procedure of use for a drug delivery device is rarely intuitive. For example, Pressurised Metered Dose Inhalers (pMDIs) involve a high degree of coordination in order to ensure a correct dose is delivered and they are frequently used incorrectly by patients.

“This is a challenge for the industry as many patients may not be aware of their poor proficiency and worse still, the drugs may not be delivered at all – with the potential for serious harm to be caused to patients.”

It appears that patients prefer to be shown how to use a new device in person rather than using paper-based instructions, online tutorials or mobile apps.

The survey found that an overwhelming 86% of patients prefer to learn how to take their medicine from a doctor directly.

Despite the ever growing demand and availability of smartphones, on 2% of the patients surveyed chose a mobile app as a their preferred training method.

Charlotte Clark, Senior Consultant at Team Consulting said: “In order to reduce the overall costs of healthcare, there are many in the industry who feel it is inevitable that patients will self-administer more medicines in the coming years.

“In theory, this relieves the burden on healthcare systems, professionals and infrastructure but it increases the emotional and physical burden on patients. Patients frequently disregard instructions for use as they often resemble risk management documentation, full of lists of Do’s and Don’ts in tiny print. We need to reduce this burden on the patients if they are going to be able to rise to the challenge of increasing self-administration.”

Alternative methods need to be researched in order to complement professional-led training.

It can be understood why most people would not prefer to use a mobile app as opposed to seeing a doctor as an app can never replace human interaction, however it should not be overlooked.

Paul Greenhalgh, Director of Design at Team Consulting said: “I think that acceptance of alternative training methods will change as people inevitably become more ‘digitally literate’ and have real experience of using well-designed interactive training aids. After all, 15 years ago there were no smartphones and even two years ago many people wouldn’t imagine doing their banking or grocery shopping via an app.”