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There are many different apps out there and many of them can be helpful with regards to medication. I use Medisafe……...

Customisation

Medisafe allows for a good deal of customisation. When you first begin to enter a medication, there are suggestions (based on American usage). You can either choose one of these or continue to enter your own details. This then lets you enter details such as the type of administration (tablet, spray, injection etc), the appearance of medication (colour, shape), dosage amounts and times. The interface is a pill box, and if you are accurate with the appearances, it’s then really easy to check off your actual medication by matching it to the picture on the Medisafe screen.

When inputting your medication, there is a field to match the medication to the condition for which it has been prescribed. The more common contraindications are suggested but you can choose ‘other’, or ‘not specified’. This is also where you can link the medication to the health professional who prescribed it.

It’s easy to timetable medication and dosages. It even copes well with medications which are unusual in their dosage (eg I take Colecalciferol once every two weeks - not a problem for Medisafe). Then you can set the app to remind you to take the medication at the right time.  (Yes, it is compatible with the Apple Watch.) Another useful feature is that you can set the app to text a family member or friend if the patient/user doesn’t mark the medication as taken; particularly beneficial for older patients or those with memory issues.

Additionally, it is possible to reconfigure the times associated with the daily pill box. The pillbox is split into 4 sections; morning, afternoon, evening and night. These timings are set to the default settings of morning being 4am-12noon, afternoon noon-6:00pm, evening 6pm-10pm, and night 10pm-4am. Although the pillbox cannot be split into anything other than 4 sections, you are able to change the times associated with each section.

My favourite option is that the app can be configured to track dosages and remind the user to organise collecting repeat scripts. You choose when to be reminded - you tell the app how many tablets you start with, and at which level you would like to be alerted (eg 7 tablets remaining).  It’s super easy to add the refill quantities too when you do collect more medication. You also get to select what time of day the alert is sent to your phone.

Professionals

The Medicine Cabinet is really useful when attending health appointments. Every new specialist I see wants a list of my medications, with dosage quantities and times. Instead of having to remember all that information, (along with spelling the names of my more obscure medications), I now just open Medisafe, switch to the Medicine Cabinet view and hand my phone over to the health professional. No communication difficulties, or forgetting to mention a rather vital drug.

The Medicine Cabinet can also be used to store the information of medications no longer being taken. This is very useful when I get asked if I have taken a specific medicine previously. I find that looking at the list of ‘suspended’ medications is enough to remember whether any one of them was effective, or if I reacted badly to it.

Extras

Naturally, there are numerous different sounds for your phone to use when alerting the user to take their medication, and you can customise the text message sent to alert the user too.

Medisafe can be used to store other, associated information - doctors details, appointments, notes.

You are able to set up multiple users - I have programmed in a profile for Walter to remind me when his flea tablets are due!  There is even has a dog icon!

Medisafe will alert you if there is information about one of your medications, such as side effects or best practice on how to take your medication (before/after food etc).

Verdict

There are other apps out there, which probably do a very similar function but Medisafe does all I need (and more). And despite the fact that it is a free app, there are no annoying advertisements.

Medisafe gets my vote

This is not a sponsored blog.  The views expressed in this blog are my personal opinions.