Market Research Prospectus
Role of The Family Caregiver in Medication and Health Regimen Compliance and Persistency
&
An Invitation to Participate as a Collaborative Sponsor

Q4, 2004

STRATEGIC INSIGHT and BACKGROUND

Compliance with medication and therapy regimens is essential to good health. Caregivers are faced with significant challenges to ensure that their loved one takes the right dose, at the right time, all the time. In a survey of 284 caregivers conducted by The Caregivers Advisory Panel in July, 2004, 30% of the caregivers surveyed stated that lack of compliance had a negative impact on the health of their care recipient.

Medication compliance and persistency is also a major business issue for all OTC and RX manufacturers. The impact on business results can be huge. There are 44.1 family caregivers in the US and their role in medication compliance has not been formally studied in a way that would allow not only rich “actionable” data to be collected – but in a study also designed to enable the creation of an effective, “best practices” Tool Kit for caregivers to use to support and enable their compliance efforts.

Such a kit may include branded messaging from sponsors and could be distributed to physicians, pharmacists in chain drug stores, home care/visiting nurses, discharge planners, assisted living facilities and others to give great exposure to those companies who participate (think influence the influencer and owning mindshare at multiple stakeholder levels).

AND the issue is not just medication compliance but REGIMEN compliance – think diabetic and other diagnostic testing that leads to use of medication and other prescribed monitoring and testing.

The Caregivers Advisory Panel, Inc.®, (TCAP®) (www.caregiversadvisorypanel.com) a recognized resource for Caregiver Research for health care manufacturers, has identified the need for this type of research as critical and has made the strategic decision to design, develop and implement a multi-sponsor study of the Role of Caregiver in Medication Compliance and Persistency. Gail Gibson Hunt, President and CEO of the National Alliance for Caregiving (http://caregiving.org/) one of the most respected non-profits in the caregiving/aging field has agreed to act as Technical Advisor and Collaborative Partner for the project.

The Alliance has conducted most of the major studies investigating caregiver demographics and major issues, including the recent NAC/AARP National Caregiver Survey Caregiving in the US -- Full Report (PDF – 458KB).

Stakeholders for the project will be: 

• Caregivers and their loved ones/care recipients;
• OTC/RX Manufacturers
• HMOs, health plans
• Retailers
• Potentially CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid)
• Any organization/association that collaborates to help create awareness and participation

This is an invitation to participate as a Collaborative Sponsor (have a direct voice into final study planning & design) and Sponsor of the Research.

INTRODUCTION 

Many organizations and individuals are working to increase the level of compliance with medication & health regimens of people with chronic illnesses, because when they are not fully compliant, their treatment is not as effective.  Many people who are ill have caregivers, often family members, who could possibly influence their compliance significantly.  The objective of the research described in this Prospectus is to examine how caregivers can play a role in increasing compliance and what tools might be developed (against specific preferences to be identified) to enable such behavior.

RESEARCH DESIGN

Information from both caregivers and care recipients will be collected through a web based online survey which can also be downloaded and taken via mail.  Both caregivers and care recipients would be identified through the TCAP® Data Base. We will survey care recipients who regularly take medication for a chronic illness (i.e. diabetes), as well as caregivers who care for such individuals.  NOTE: FINAL DESIGN IS OPEN TO MODIFICATION BASED ON FEEDBACK FROM THE EARLY ADOPTER SPONSOR COMMUNITY. 

The TCAP Research Team and Gail Gibson Hunt, President and CEO of The National Alliance For Caregiving will hold meetings with Collaborative Sponsor Representatives (manufacturing sponsors) to solicit input for developing a draft questionnaire.  Once a draft questionnaire has been reviewed, it will be pre-tested through in-depth telephone interviews with 6 caregivers and 6 care recipients.  These in-depths will help ensure that the content of the questionnaire covers the most important issues relating to compliance...

And that the question wording is effective.  Upon completion of these interviews, TCAP and The Alliance will revise the questionnaire and trim it to the equivalent of a 4-page or a 6-page printed survey.

Preliminary Topics for the questionnaire might include the following (Collaborative Sponsors will drive final scope and specific questions):

• Background information on conditions, prescribed regimen of medication/treatment, and the caregiving situation

• Degree to which the prescribed regimen is followed or not

• Factors contributing to good compliance and poor compliance

• Reasons why prescribed regimen is not followed [obstacles]

• Degree to which non-compliance is perceived as a problem by the patient or caregiver

• Degree to which non-compliance had a negative impact on the health of the care recipient

• Willingness and ability of caregivers to assist with compliance

• Receptiveness to particular ideas and tools for caregivers & care recipients to help increase compliance

• What types of medication management reminders/devices/services are currently in use; perceived satisfaction with how well they work.

DATA CAPTURE

The research design calls for gathering information for this study through an online survey that can also be downloaded and taken by mail.  With the online survey, invitations containing an automatic URL link to a survey questionnaire website will be sent to the data base sample selected for this study. The Target N – Size for respondents is 1000 and a large enough sample will be invited to help ensure that respondent number. The survey questionnaire website will be programmed for interviewing using state-of-the-art survey software. 

REPORTING AND ANALYSIS

Once all anticipated survey responses have been received, TCAP will deliver overall results for every question on the survey, as well as one data tabulation book that categorizes (cross tabs) the results in up to twenty different categories of respondents.  We will prepare a comprehensive report of findings that discusses the results of every question on the survey and include an executive summary with key findings. 

Based on the results, a comprehensive Tool Kit Recommendation will be made to Collaborative Sponsors and Phase 2 of the Project will be the development of a Tool Kit Distribution Design, Development and Distribution Strategy. 

TIMETABLE

We anticipate that the project will take about 14-18 weeks to complete, as shown in the following schedule assuming Sponsorship is fully subscribed by 12/1/04, Project will start in early December with results in Q1, 2005.

SPONSORSHIP

Manufacturers can participate as a COLLABORATIVE SPONSOR and can have an option to be the Category Exclusive Sponsor of Phase 2 as they are available. Collaborative Sponsors will have a strategic voice at the planning table and into final instrument design.

Compliance Tools will include Branded messaging from Sponsors. 

If you would like to receive a PARTICIPATION PROSPECTUS & FEE SCHEDULE (in development at present time) – please email us at palper@alperassociates.com OR call us at 401 364 9100 and ask for Paul Alper or Tom Doyle.

A portion of the Research Fees will be contributed to the National Alliance for Caregiving.