Outpatient perceptions of the medtable: A medication scheduling tool

Background: Health literacy is the ability of patients to obtain, process, and understand information needed to make health decisions. Health literacy is a stronger predictor of a person's health than is age, income, employment status, educational level, or race. The Medtable is a paper-based tool that is designed to support comprehension of medication information by patients. A collaborative tool such as the Medtable might facilitate the comprehension of medication information by low-literacy patients and increase communication regarding medications between healthcare providers and their patients. Before evaluating the efficacy of the Medtable to improve health outcomes, it is important to confirm that patients find the tool easy to use and helpful in relevant clinical settings. Objective: To investigate whether patients think that the Medtable is a helpful and easy-to-use tool for organizing daily medication regimens. Methods: Sixty outpatients participated in this usability study. Patients filled in the Medtable with a healthcare provider. Opinions regarding the usability of the Medtable were elicited with a brief questionnaire afterward. Results: Fifty-five of the 60 (92%) patients thought the Medtable would be very or somewhat helpful when figuring out when to take their medications and would be very or somewhat helpful for assisting them with taking their medications at home. Fifty-nine of the 60 (98%) patients thought the Medtable would be very or somewhat easy to fill in with the assistance of their health care provider. Conclusions: Patients think that the Medtable is a helpful and easy-to-use tool for organizing their daily medication regimens. Future studies should evaluate Medtable's efficacy to improve patient medication knowledge and adherence.