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The Role of Telehealth in Improving Medication Adherence
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- What is telehealth in medication adherence?
- Why medication adherence remains a challenge in the NHS
- How telehealth improves medication adherence in primary care
- What this means for PCNs and primary care delivery
- Where telehealth can go wrong
- The role of clinical pharmacists and pharmacy technicians
- How Core Prescribing Solutions supports medication adherence through telehealth
Telehealth can improve medication adherence by making follow-up, monitoring and patient support more consistent between appointments. In primary care, it gives clinicians and pharmacy teams more opportunities to identify non-adherence early, support safer medicines use and reduce avoidable pressure linked to poorly controlled long-term conditions.
Key takeaways
- Telehealth supports medication adherence through regular follow-up, remote consultations, reminders and earlier intervention.
- Poor medication adherence remains a major issue in long-term condition management and can increase avoidable workload across primary care.
- Successful telehealth delivery depends on clinical governance, workforce integration, digital inclusion and clear escalation routes.
What is telehealth in medication adherence?
Telehealth in medication adherence is the use of remote digital tools, telephone support and online consultations to help patients take medicines as prescribed. In UK primary care, this may include remote medication reviews, digital follow-up, adherence monitoring, reminder systems and pharmacist-led patient support.
It does not replace all face-to-face care. Instead, it helps clinicians maintain more regular contact with patients, identify problems sooner and support safer medicines use between formal appointments.
Why medication adherence remains a challenge in the NHS
Medication adherence remains a persistent issue across the NHS. NHS England notes that between 30 and 50% of medicines prescribed for long-term conditions are not taken as intended.
In primary care, this is not just a patient behaviour issue. Poor adherence can affect long-term condition control, prescribing safety, GP workload and avoidable use of NHS services.
Common causes of non-adherence include:
- Complex medication regimens, especially where patients have more than one long-term condition
- Poor understanding of why a medicine has been prescribed
- Side effects or concerns that are not discussed early enough
- Difficulty ordering, collecting or managing repeat medicines
- Limited follow-up after a new medicine is started
- Fragmented care across different services
In practice, non-adherence is often not identified until the patient’s condition worsens, repeat prescriptions are missed, or they return to the practice with ongoing symptoms. This is where telehealth can help shift care from reactive to proactive.
How telehealth improves medication adherence in primary care
Telehealth improves medication adherence by giving primary care teams more opportunities to support patients outside traditional face-to-face appointments. This is particularly useful for patients with long-term conditions, complex medicines or barriers to attending the practice.
1. Structured follow-up after prescribing
One of the biggest gaps in medicines use is what happens after a medicine is prescribed.
A patient may leave a consultation with a treatment plan, but later experience side effects, confusion, practical barriers or doubts about whether the medicine is needed. Without follow-up, these issues can lead to missed doses or stopping treatment altogether.
Telehealth allows practices and pharmacy teams to provide structured check-ins after prescribing. This can help confirm whether the patient has started the medicine, understands how to take it and knows what to do if problems occur.
2. Earlier identification of non-adherence
Traditional models often identify non-adherence late, usually after a deterioration, abnormal result or repeat appointment.
Remote touchpoints can help clinicians spot issues earlier. This may include a patient reporting side effects, a pharmacy technician identifying repeat prescription gaps, or a clinical pharmacist reviewing whether treatment is being used as intended.
Earlier intervention helps reduce avoidable risk, particularly for patients taking medicines for conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, asthma, cardiovascular disease or mental health conditions.
3. Better patient engagement and understanding
Many adherence issues come from uncertainty rather than refusal. Patients may not understand the purpose of treatment, how long they need to take it, what side effects to expect, or whether it is safe to take alongside other medicines.
Telehealth gives patients more accessible ways to ask questions and raise concerns. This can improve shared decision-making, which is important because patients are more likely to follow a treatment plan when they understand it and have been involved in the decision.
4. Support for medicines optimisation
Telehealth can also support medicines optimisation by making reviews more flexible and easier to deliver at scale.
Structured Medication Reviews, remote medication reviews and pharmacist-led consultations can help assess:
- Whether the medicine is still needed
- Whether the patient is taking it as intended
- Whether side effects or interactions are affecting adherence
- Whether the patient understands the treatment plan
- Whether the regimen could be simplified
- Whether further clinical review or escalation is needed
This helps move adherence support beyond reminders alone. The aim is not simply to tell patients to take medicines, but to make sure the treatment is appropriate, understood and manageable.
What this means for PCNs and primary care delivery
For PCNs and GP practices, telehealth is most effective when it is built into normal clinical and prescribing workflows. It should not sit separately from medicines optimisation, repeat prescribing, long-term condition reviews or Structured Medication Reviews.
In practice, this means having:
- Clear processes for identifying patients who need adherence support
- Defined roles for clinical pharmacists and pharmacy technicians
- Safe escalation routes where clinical concerns are identified
- Standardised templates for follow-up and review
- Access to relevant patient records and prescribing information
- Clear governance around digital tools and remote consultations
- Options for patients who cannot access or use digital services easily
The strongest models combine digital access with human clinical support. Telehealth should make it easier to reach patients, but it still needs clinical judgement, safe prescribing processes and proper continuity.
Where telehealth can go wrong
Telehealth should not be treated as a simple technology fix. It can create risk if it is poorly governed or used as a replacement for care that should be face to face.
Common risks include:
- Patients being pushed into digital routes they cannot use confidently
- Unclear ownership of follow-up tasks
- Missed escalation when symptoms or side effects need clinical review
- Fragmented records across systems
- Over-reliance on automated reminders without clinical support
- Poor integration with repeat prescribing workflows
- Lack of clarity over who is responsible for monitoring adherence
For medication adherence, the main risk is assuming that contact equals support. A reminder may help some patients, but others need a clinical conversation, regimen review, side effect discussion or wider medicines optimisation input.
The role of clinical pharmacists and pharmacy technicians
Clinical pharmacists and pharmacy technicians are central to making telehealth work in medication adherence.
Clinical pharmacists can support:
- Remote medication reviews
- Structured Medication Reviews
- Long-term condition medicines support
- Side effect and interaction discussions
- Adherence concerns linked to clinical risk
- Prescribing safety and escalation
Pharmacy technicians can support:
- Repeat prescribing workflows
- Medicines reconciliation
- Identifying prescription gaps
- Patient recalls
- Adherence support processes
- Follow-up administration
- Medicines safety checks within their scope
These roles should work together rather than separately. Pharmacists bring clinical prescribing and medicines expertise, while pharmacy technicians help create the structure and consistency needed for adherence support at scale.
Core Prescribing Solutions Insight: What we see in primary care
In primary care, medication adherence problems are often hidden inside everyday workload. A missed repeat, an uncontrolled reading, a patient not collecting medicine, or repeated symptoms may all point to the same underlying issue.
What makes the difference is not the digital tool alone. It is the workflow around it.
Telehealth works best when practices and PCNs have a clear process for identifying adherence concerns, assigning the right team member, documenting outcomes and escalating clinical risks quickly. Without that structure, remote support can become another disconnected task rather than a safer model of care.
Expert comment from our CEO and qualified clinical pharmacist:
“Telehealth can strengthen medication adherence when it is clinically led and properly integrated into primary care workflows. The value is not just in remote access. It is in using regular contact, pharmacist input and clear escalation routes to identify medicines-related problems earlier and support patients before avoidable deterioration occurs.”
Adeem Azhar, Co-Founder and CEO, MPharm, IPres, Core Prescribing Solutions
How Core Prescribing Solutions supports medication adherence through telehealth
At Core Prescribing Solutions, we help GP practices and PCNs use telehealth to identify medication adherence issues earlier and manage them safely within existing prescribing workflows.
Our clinical pharmacy team can support this by:
- Carrying out remote medication reviews for patients with adherence concerns
- Following up after new medicines, dose changes or reported side effects
- Identifying missed repeats, prescription gaps and patients who may need review
- Supporting recalls and repeat prescribing checks through pharmacy technician input
- Escalating patients who need GP input, urgent review or face-to-face care
This gives practices a clearer way to manage adherence without relying only on reminders or one-off patient contact.
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