The World Health Organization defines medication adherence or patient compliance as "the degree to which the person’s behavior corresponds with the agreed recommendations from a health care provider." Medicine compliance to therapies is determinant of treatment success. Quality healthcare outcomes depend upon patients' adherence to recommended treatment regimens. Patient non-compliance is a serious problem which affects not only the patient but also the health care system because the treatment nonadherence in patients leads to substantial worsening of disease, death, and increased health care costs. The healthcare system is integrally working with the approach to providing quality health services to the individuals for prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases. But achieving the goal of the healthcare system is not only the duty of healthcare professionals, it is also the patient who is responsible for proper healthcare outcomes. The treatment designed by the healthcare professionals is for the welfare of the patients and society thus they should comply with treatment.

In the first place, let us enlighten ourselves on types of noncompliance; the patient noncompliance in which the patient never started prescribed medication is called nonfulfillment adherence. The other type is non-persistence, in which patients decide to stop taking medicines after starting it, without being advised by a health professional. The third type of noncompliance is non conforming, in which medication is not considered as prescribed, this behavior can range from skipping doses, to taking medications at incorrect times or wrong doses, to even taking more than prescribed.

Now, coming to the patient's role in improving healthcare or medicine practice, the patient can participate in person to improve his/her health. Health literacy is one factor, a patient should try to understand the disease and treatment. The treatment is for his/her betterment, in this way patient will be able to understand the importance of treatment, making him/her comply with treatment. It will be easy for the medicine and healthcare professionals to treat diseases if the patients adhere to the treatment.

For instance, if a patient discontinues a medication say antibiotics, without consulting physician, it may result in resistance; this will make the treatment difficult for any future infections. In case of chronic diseases, noncompliance can make conditions even worse for the physicians to treat. Moreover, if the patient does not take medications as prescribed, i.e., at the right time or prescribed dose it hampers the therapeutic efficacy of the medicines. The treatment will not work as desired which will impede the quality of the treatment. On the other hand, if the patient adheres to the treatment it will help to maintain the quality of the treatment.So, the medical professionals must educate the patients about the disease, treatment, and compliance. For better patient compliance barriers to the effective use of medicines which specifically include poor physician-patient communication, not being convinced of the need for treatment, fear of adverse effects of the drug, long-term drug regimens, complex regimens that require numerous medications with varying dosing schedules, cost and access barriers should be overcome. Thus, it is noteworthy that patient compliance will help in quality healthcare which ultimately will boost the medical practice.