As if keeping up with your credit score wasn't enough, I read in today's NY Times that FICO has now developed a methodology for predicting your likely adherence with taking prescription medication. For those wondering what I mean by medical adherence, it's basically the combination of compliance (the extent to which a patient acts in accordance with the prescribed interval and dose of a dosing regimen) and persistency (the duration of time from initiation to discontinuation of therapy).
So how did FICO develop an adherence score on you? Well they purchased data on about 600,000 Americans showing their prescription drug habits (refill rates, time between refills, etc…) across a multitude of conditions, and then looked at the available demographic data on those same people (age, marital status, job stability, etc…). They used this data to create a projection methodology that they could then apply to all of us.
Why bother? Who cares if you're adherent you might ask. Um, lots of people that represent major industries. Think pharmaceutical and insurance companies. Big pharma wants to know your current score and anything they can to improve your score because the more drugs you take, the more $ they make. The insurance companies want to know your current score so they can adjust your insurance rates accordingly. Nothing like a little more Big Brother in your life.
My personal take is that this methodology is highly imperfect, but given that it's the best available data, it will probably be widely adopted by industry.