A medical visit can end with a clear diagnosis and a well-prescribed treatment. After leaving, the patient still has to find the medicines, pay for them, understand how to organize their doses and repeat that routine for weeks, months or years. Continuity of treatment also depends on their being able to solve all of that.
For someone living with a chronic condition, the prescription opens up a daily task. A medicine that costs too much, an instruction that raises doubts or a delayed refill can interrupt it. Each difficulty happens outside the doctor's office, but it is part of the same treatment.
At Quarks Data we drove the creation of Qida to support that journey. Qida will be incorporated in Delaware as a startup independent of Quarks Data. The thesis behind its creation is that technology can help patients carry their health professional's instructions into daily life.
Adherence depends on the patient's circumstances
Treatment adherence describes the extent to which a person follows the recommendations agreed with their health professional. For medicines, it includes aspects such as dose, timing and the prescribed duration. Understanding why that continuity breaks down requires looking at each patient's circumstances.
The review by Zoe Moon and Jane Walsh, published in Frontiers in Pharmacology in 2025, distinguishes practical difficulties, such as forgetting, from factors related to the person's beliefs, concerns and motivations. It also notes that the results of digital interventions are variable and that their design and personalization matter. [1]
A reminder helps when someone forgets a dose. A question about side effects requires communication with a professional. A price barrier calls for exploring access options. Designing support should start by identifying what hinders continuity and offering help that matches that difficulty.
What the evidence allows us to say
The REMIND trial, published in JAMA Internal Medicine in 2017, included 53,480 people. It evaluated three simple medication reminder devices and found no statistically significant improvement in adherence compared with the control group over twelve months. The result shows the limits of intervening only on remembering in that population. [2]
A 2025 review in Frontiers in Digital Health identified seven studies on AI tools to support medication use. Four worked with patients in real-world settings and three evaluated conceptual proposals or simulations. The authors described the evidence as still weak, with a moderate or high risk of bias. [3]
In July 2026, a meta-analysis in PLOS Digital Health pooled six randomized trials and found a favorable average effect of chatbots on adherence. However, differences between the studies were very high, with 97% heterogeneity. The subgroup with interventions lasting six months or more did not show a statistically significant pooled effect. These are promising signals that require validation in each context. [4]
The Ghana study published in the Journal of Global Health in 2026 adds a useful perspective. It followed 874 adults with type 2 diabetes or hypertension for six months. Adjusted models showed modest improvements associated with the intervention, although the differences between the adjusted means of both groups at the end of follow-up were not statistically significant. In addition, allocation was not randomized and adherence was self-reported. [5]
Read together, these studies guide how to build and evaluate a solution. Digital support has potential, but the outcome depends on the population, the intervention and how it is measured. These studies examined other tools; Qida must generate its own evidence.
Qida connects treatment with routine
Qida lets patients digitize an existing prescription, review how it was read and organize their medicines according to the instructions received. The patient can set reminders, log their doses and check prices near the address they saved. Prices and availability must be confirmed with the pharmacy. [6, 7]
Vita helps find medicines, look up options and manage price alerts. An authorized family member can view the treatment and the logged doses from their own account; the patient can revoke that permission. Decisions about diagnosis, dosage and treatment changes belong to the health professional. [6, 7]
Connecting these tasks makes it possible to support different moments of the routine. A price search can help before buying; a reminder can support daily organization; the authorized involvement of a family member can make support easier. The value of that experience will have to be demonstrated through sustained use and specific evaluations.
An opportunity for health organizations
For an insurer, a clinic or a pharmaceutical company, supporting continuity opens a service opportunity. A program can start with a defined population and a concrete need, such as making it easier to organize treatments or understanding the access barriers its participants report. Qida proposes institutional programs built around that support. [7]
The usefulness for each participant must be clear. The patient needs help sustaining their routine; the health team needs relevant, authorized information; the organization funding the program needs to know what service it is offering and how to evaluate it.
The economic evaluation should include the cost of onboarding and supporting each patient, continuity of use and the resources needed to run the program. Any reduction in hospitalizations or healthcare spending will require a specific evaluation with clinical outcomes and an appropriate comparator.
Lessons for Qida's growth and evaluation
Our reading of these studies translates into six proposed criteria to guide Qida's development and evaluation. They are decisions the startup will need to test in its own population.
Match the help to the patient's barrier
Qida should start with specific populations and barriers. Supporting a person who forgets their doses differs from what someone needs who cannot get the medicine or has questions about how to use it. The choice of features should respond to that need; clinical questions should be referred to the professional. [1, 2]
Design with patients and measure continued use
The experience should be designed and tested with patients and caregivers, including older adults and people less familiar with digital tools. For growth, we propose measuring, by onboarding cohort, the share who confirm a plan in the app and keep using the relevant features at 30, 60 and 90 days. Those windows are an operational proposal for Qida. It should also be tested which contact frequency is useful for each group. [1, 4]
Distinguish app use from adherence
A logged dose is a statement by the user; a purchase or dispensing record provides information about access to the medicine. Neither, on its own, proves the medicine was taken. Nor does a missing log confirm a missed dose. Evaluation should use adherence measures appropriate to the population and, where possible, complement self-reports with other sources, such as authorized dispensing data. [3, 4]
Compare to estimate Qida's impact
Impact studies should set their primary outcome, follow-up and analysis in advance, and compare Qida with usual care, preferably with random allocation. They should also report dropouts and missing data. If the program includes human support, the result belongs to the combination; estimating Vita's specific contribution will require a comparison able to isolate it. [3, 5]
Check that benefits are sustained
For chronic treatments, we propose evaluating continuity at six and twelve months, depending on the population and the goal. The evaluation should report the size of the change and its uncertainty, and assess whether it represents a meaningful difference for the patient. An initial pilot can teach about adoption and barriers; longer follow-up makes it possible to investigate whether effects are maintained. [4, 5]
Evaluate trust and the cost of scaling the service
Scaling programs should take into account the cost per supported patient and the workload for teams. It also requires verifying Vita's accuracy within its functions, how it refers clinical questions, and how the permissions for sharing information work. Patients should take part in that evaluation and keep control over what they share. [1, 4]
These criteria make it possible to guide expansion with evidence of adoption and usefulness, and to back every claim of clinical or economic impact with the corresponding evaluation. Learning about Qida should accompany its growth.
The work continues after the visit
The opportunity Qida addresses begins at a very specific moment: when a person leaves with a prescription and needs to make it part of their life. Finding purchase options, organizing doses and letting someone they trust support them are close, repeated and relevant tasks.
Qida seeks to support that journey and to rigorously measure what it achieves. The prescription is born in the doctor's office. Continuity is built every day.
References
[1] Moon Z, Walsh J. Digital interventions in medication adherence: a narrative review of current evidence and challenges. Frontiers in Pharmacology. 2025;16:1632474. Pages 1-7. doi.org/10.3389/fphar.2025.1632474
[2] Choudhry NK et al. Effect of Reminder Devices on Medication Adherence: The REMIND Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Internal Medicine. 2017;177(5):624-631. doi.org/10.1001/jamainternmed.2016.9627
[3] Reis ZSN et al. Artificial intelligence-based tools for patient support to enhance medication adherence: a focused review. Frontiers in Digital Health. 2025;7:1523070. Pages 1 and 10-12. doi.org/10.3389/fdgth.2025.1523070
[4] Chen S et al. Artificial intelligence-based chatbots to enhance medication adherence among patients with non-communicable chronic diseases: Systematic review and meta-analysis. PLOS Digital Health. 2026;5(7):e0001507. Pages 9-14. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pdig.0001507
[5] Aovare P et al. mHealth for chronic disease management: effects on adherence in Ghanaian patients with diabetes and hypertension. Journal of Global Health. 2026;16:04203. Pages 1, 3-5 and 8-11. doi.org/10.7189/jogh.16.04203
[6] Qida. Official website. Patient features, Vita, family support and scope of the service. Accessed October 15, 2026. qida.io
[7] Quarks Data. Qida and institutional treatment-continuity programs. Accessed October 15, 2026. quarksdata.com/products/qida
Cover photo: Kampus Production on Pexels, under the Pexels license. Illustrative image; the people pictured are not associated with the use of Qida.