Our Take
Adherence remains unsolved in pharma because vendors optimize for compliance logging instead of the behavioral dynamics that actually drive forgetting—and reimbursement still blocks adoption.
Why it matters
Patients skip doses at scale when symptoms improve or benefits feel invisible; no drug works if it sits in the cabinet. Healthcare systems need both the tools and the funding to deploy them, neither of which exists yet at speed.
Do this week
Medical directors: audit your last 100 treatment failures for adherence vs. efficacy signal loss, then map which ones a $2K-per-patient at-home sensor could have prevented before greenlit any pilot.
Adherence Tech Takes Center Stage at Amsterdam Conference
At HLTH Europe 2026 in June, pharma, biotech and medtech leaders convened to discuss patient adherence technologies that support long-term treatment engagement. Andrew Menzies-Gow, VP R&I global medical at AstraZeneca, framed the challenge as a power imbalance: patients need the ability to make informed decisions about their health and data, supported by guidance from healthcare professionals.
Meadhbha Monaghan, chief executive of the Patient Client Council (PCC) NI, stressed that improving adherence requires a cultural shift where pharma, patients, and healthcare systems share risk and accountability. Marta Nowotarska, director of consumer engagement at Novo Nordisk, noted that the "consumerisation of health"—heightened public access to medical information—means pharma must partner with payers, healthcare systems, and patient advocacy groups to navigate regulation in ways that serve end users, not just compliance.
AI-Powered Precision Nudging
Lirio's CEO Marten den Haring presented an AI system designed to provide flexible, data-informed support tailored to individual patients. The core insight: adherence is dynamic. Patients drop off when symptoms are controlled or when treatment prevents progression they cannot directly feel. Lirio uses behavioral science and AI to adapt support over time, identifying which nudging techniques work for specific patients.
Den Haring emphasized geography matters. The UK's COVID-19 messaging focused on protecting the NHS; a US equivalent asking patients to protect a payer would fail. Engagement strategies must align with local values and healthcare system framing.
Wearables and Specialized Devices
Ai2Ai demonstrated PALL0, a ball-shaped device that gamifies physical rehabilitation and health data collection. The device uses sensors to measure grip strength and key movements, feeding data back to clinicians and encouraging patients through memory training exercises. CEO Henrik Terävä identified neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's as the primary use case, emphasizing that adherence tools must be straightforward to use.
HealthBeacon's FDA-cleared sharps bin tracks syringe or autoinjector disposal against a patient's prescribed schedule, sending SMS reminders when adherence slips. The bin logs disposal events and sends alerts to pharmacists, prescribers, or caregivers for precision outreach. CEO Keiran Daly noted that sensors work best as an additive to the "human layer of care," allowing healthcare systems to prioritize follow-ups and allocate resources.
Janus Hoeks, co-founder of PicoCare, designed a dispensing machine that logs correct medication use. The tool has dual value: it provides fixed adherence data for clinical trials without manual diary processing, and it supports elderly patients in remembering daily doses. Hoeks stressed that implementation speed matters—overstretched healthcare systems benefit from deploying existing tools early rather than waiting for the next generation.
Reimbursement and Deployment Lag Behind Innovation
The conference surfaced a structural gap: technologies exist, but adoption is constrained. Health technology reimbursement remains a key hurdle across Europe. Speakers agreed that creating widely adopted tools requires intuitive design and a "me first" patient benefit that solves an unmet need. Yet regulatory compliance and payer approval slow rollout.
Adherence failure cascades: patients skip doses, outcomes degrade, claims are denied, and healthcare systems absorb the cost. The pharma industry's traditional focus on clinical efficacy obscures the behavioral and contextual factors that determine whether a patient takes the medicine at all.
What to Audit Before Deploying Adherence Tools
Before adopting any adherence technology, map your own failure modes. Are patients forgetting, or are they choosing not to take a drug because side effects outweigh perceived benefit? Does your population speak the language your app uses, or use SMS reminders? Does your healthcare system have capacity to act on precision outreach alerts, or will the data sit unused?
Start with a pilot that measures actual behavior change, not just device activation. HealthBeacon's sharps bin and PicoCare's dispensing machine are already FDA-cleared; Lirio's system and Ai2Ai's PALL0 require site-specific validation. Cost per patient and integration burden should be evaluated against your trial failure rate due to adherence, not against marketing claims about engagement.