Xenical patient support service gets approval from Medicines Partnership
Health care professionals at the support line help patients set
achievable goals |
A telephone support service for patients receiving Roche's anti-obesity product Xenical (orlistat) has been described as a model of best practice by the Task Force on Medicines Partnership as part of Ask About Medicines Week (12–18 October).
The Motivation, Action and Proactive (MAP) support line offers patients
taking orlistat six months of telephone support backed by printed information
which aims to help them develop an understanding about weight management
through lifestyle changes and treatment advice. The service is run for
Roche by medical assistance company SOS International from a call centre
in west London.
Patients are given the telephone number for the service by a health care
professional, normally at the time of prescribing or dispensing. After
an initial registration call, patients are telephoned approximately monthly
thereafter at agreed times by a health care professional, most commonly
a nurse or a nutritionist, to discuss how they are getting on and to
help set realistic, achievable treatment goals.
Geraldine Mynors, project manager at the Medicines Partnership, said: “The
MAP project is something we are particularly keen to support because
we believe that proactive, tailored telephone assistance from a health
care professional is one approach to involving patients more in decisions
about medicines.”
She added that the MAP project puts medicines in a wider context of lifestyle
and healthy eating, and is non-coercive in approach.
During a recent visit to the MAP call centre, The Journal was told that
compliance with Xenical for patients in the scheme is double that seen
outside it. |
