Benjamin Click, MD: Route of Administration and Patient Adherence to IBD Therapy

Benjamin Click, MD, staff gastroenterologist, the Cleveland Clinic, discusses how route of administration impacts patient adherence to inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) therapy.

Transcript

So I think everybody is different, and everybody has different priorities and thoughts on dosing and routes of administration. And so, some people are scared of giving themselves injections, for example. That certainly plays into whether or not I may recommend the utilization of a subcutaneous injection-based therapy.

In some patients, you know, logistics coming in for an infusion are challenging. And even if it is every 8 weeks or a shorter potential timeframe, that poses potential travel, caregiving from family members, as well as lost opportunity at work or school.

And so I think everybody is different in how they prioritize those. I'd say there's some pros and cons to each of those from a provider perspective. For example, with infusions, I can see if a patient is getting their infusions on time and making sure that they're administering and receiving them appropriately. Whereas with subcutaneous I have to trust that patient is administering that medication on time. And so there are nuances to each of these considerations.