An educational framework for managing and supporting medication adherence in Europe.

Introduction: Decisions about taking medicines ultimately lie with patients, so health professionals need to engage with patients to manage and support medication adherence. Health professionals need appropriate education to do this. We aimed to develop an educational framework for health professionals in Europe for managing and supporting medication adherence. Description of the framework: The resulting educational framework comprises a competency framework, a curriculum, a diagnostic tool for competence assessment and a reading list. Quality assurance: Framework development started from a 2007 competency framework for shared decision-making. A literature review and a Europe-wide consultation were conducted and the ABC research team acted as a reference group. Implementation: The educational framework was distributed to schools of pharmacy, medicine and nursing in 16 European countries and 70 health profession organisations. Its wide distribution and easy availability should make it easier for learning about medication adherence to be incorporated into existing curricula.