Ben Long, MD, and Weston Blakeslee, PhD, discuss how pharmacists can integrate automated SMS tools to reduce readmissions while minimizing workflow burden.
In an interview with Pharmacy Times®, Ben Long, MD, director of Hospital Medicine at Magnolia Regional Health Center, and Weston Blakeslee, PhD vice president of Clinical Intelligence at DrFirst, explained how pharmacists can collaborate with care teams to leverage digital engagement strategies to reduce hospital readmissions and improve long-term outcomes. The experts authored a study that found that interaction with SMS-based text reminders improved medication adherence and readmission rates for patients with congestive heart failure.
Long emphasized the importance of breaking down care silos across the health care system, noting that although clinicians often work in different roles and organizations, they ultimately share the same goal of improving patient outcomes. He highlighted the value of stronger feedback loops that extend beyond short-term metrics such as 30-day readmission rates and instead focus on lifetime outcomes, including mortality and sustained disease control.
Long underscored that pharmacists are uniquely positioned to contribute to these efforts due to their ongoing visibility into patients’ medication use. Through routine interactions, pharmacists can identify adherence issues, adverse effects, and high-risk drug interactions over time. He noted that leveraging this longitudinal insight represents a major opportunity to enhance care coordination and warrants further research to fully optimize its impact.
Blakeslee expressed strong support for integrating SMS adherence tools into pharmacy workflows, calling pharmacists one of the most underappreciated assets in the health care ecosystem. However, he cautioned that pharmacy workflows are already heavily strained. For digital interventions to succeed, they must be accurate, clinically effective, and highly automated to minimize additional burden on pharmacists and technicians. Blakeslee stressed that any implementation strategy should prioritize efficiency and avoid disrupting core dispensing and counseling responsibilities.
“Pharmacists have a really unique line of sight to medication adherence, adverse effects, and high-risk interactions through time.” - Ben Long, MD
In closing, Blakeslee emphasized the importance of targeting vulnerable patient populations first when deploying digital interventions. He explained that refining tools in high-risk groups can prevent avoidable outcomes and generate insights that benefit broader patient populations over time. Both experts agreed that while improving prescription fills is critical, ensuring patients take medications as prescribed remains a major challenge and an important next frontier for digital adherence strategies.
Blakeslee and Long previously spoke about the study in parts 1 and 2 of this video interview.
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