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BEAMER: Improved patient adherence to treatment by building a behavioral model

This project aims to create the disease-agnostic BEAMER model, BEhavioral and Adherence Model for improving quality, health outcomes and cost-effectiveness of healthcaRe.

About the project

The project will create and validate a disease-agnostic model of significant and actionable factors that can stimulate more adherent behaviour. We will define and validate a set of actionable factors that promote optimal health outcomes for all, and provide guidance for health & care stakeholders as they develop digital tools and implement cost-effective solutions that can drive more adherence treatment.

The BEAMER model development is driven by a set of Ontology, Epistemology and Methodology principles, supported by Artificial Intelligence, Natural Language Processing, and Machine Learning. The disease-agnostic BEAMER model will be optimized by real-life testing in different pilots from several European countries and across different disease areas. The model will be embodied in an open-source European searchable database available to all stakeholders and adaptable for further, future developments in healthcare.

Outcomes

The BEAMER model will:

Help build solutions that enable healthcare stakeholders to provide personalised patient support that improve adherence behaviour
Provide support that enable healthcare stakeholders to develop products and services that are better aligned with patient needs and limitations

Description of the BEAMER model

Background

Adherence to treatment is a significant challenge on a global scale, often leading to increased utilisation of healthcare services and, in some cases, premature deaths. Rates of adherence vary depending on the condition and treatment. For example WHO estimates that 50% of medications not being taken as prescribed. This percentage becomes even higher when considering adherence to treatments that require behavioral changes.

Adherence refers to the degree to which individuals align their behavior with the prescribed medication or therapy, while non-adherence occurs when individuals do not fully follow treatment recommendations. Non-adherence encompasses individuals who never initiate the prescribed treatment, discontinue it prematurely, and/or deviate from the recommended dosage or frequency.

Extensive literature reviews have shown that forcasting who will adhere to treatment and who will not is a complex task. Furthermore, determining how to support individuals in being adherent is equally challenging.

Financing

This project has received funding from the Innovative Medicines Initiative 2 Joint Undertaking under Grant Agreement no 101034369. The BEAMER project receives support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, EFPIA and LINK2TRIALS BV. The total budget is 11.9M€ for a project duration of 60 months.

Cooperation

Co-led by Pfizer (Industry Lead) and UPM (Coordinator) the five-year project – BEAMER – brings together 27 European partners from academia, civil society and industry to jointly address adherence to treatment.