Adherence is one of the most important and enduring challenges facing chronic disease management. According to the National Institutes of Health,  50 percent of medications for chronic disease are not taken, on average, as prescribed.

In our recent interview with Dr. Bill Polonsky of the Behavioral Diabetes Institute, he said that there are two major barriers to consistently taking medication, particularly insulin: (i) the inconvenience of taking it; and (ii) people’s fundamental beliefs about whether the medication is working. But what if we had a resource that could help turn both of these concerns into pieces of a game?

The Chicago Tribune just ran a fascinating story by Lisa Schencker about a new program by Walgreens and HealthPrize Technologies, which will make taking medication more like a game. The program should launch later this year, with the first set of “players” expected to be patients with diabetes. Participants will earn points for taking their medicine as prescribed, for refilling prescriptions, and for answering questions about their condition and medications. Participants will be able to compare their point totals and compete anonymously with other players. Even more, the program includes a rewards feature in which points earned will translate into discounts.

What a cool idea. At diaTribe.org, we completely believe that gamification can be a powerful force to motivate people who might otherwise begin to falter on adherence. Patients will experience the mental gratification of “winning” while scoring points that can earn them in-store perks, but ultimately, of course, they’ll be winning with better health outcomes and diabetes management.

HealthPrize has developed similar programs with partners before, and the results have been promising. I’ll be watching closely to see what they have to report once this program is underway. And hopefully other companies and health providers are paying attention to the program as well and trying to develop their own innovative ways to tackle this issue. We need more creative solutions like this!

We’ll have to wait until the program launches to see well it works, but with any luck, the real winner of Walgreen’s new “game” will be the many healthcare providers and patients who have found a new way of improving adherence. What do you think??