Reducing the Burden of Treatment: Addressing How Our Patients Feel About What We Ask of Them

Patients with multiple chronic conditions (MCCs) face enormous challenges in terms of adherence to guideline-driven care, especially when there are individual guidelines for each of their chronic conditions. Although physicians are knowledgeable of challenges faced by patients with MCCs, they are less aware of the severity of these challenges and when patients may be contemplating reducing their medication adherence because of these challenges. The cumulative complexity model of Shippee et al1 and the discussion of minimally disruptive medicine by Leppin et al2 highlight the importance of helping patients balance care demands with their individual capacity (or self-defined capability) to perform the work needed to care for their conditions.