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There has been much debate about reliable methodologies for measuring adherence to drug therapies for chronic diseases. Recently, our group carried out a drug adherence study [1] with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), a clonal myeloproliferative disease characterized by the presence of the Philadelphia chromosome [2]. Tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI) are widely used to treat CML and have been shown to lead to long-term survival rates when administered with strict dosage regimens. Thus, assuring treatment adherence is a critical strategy to obtain successful outcomes in patients with this chronic disease.

We have posited that the clinical pharmacist can play a critical role in the present treatment plans through more frequent patient monitoring and by providing more personalized assessments of the patient’s disease status [1]. Because the characteristics of TKI treatments for CML are similar to other chronic …