Anyone who has had to take one or more medications long-term knows that it is not easy to consistently remember to take one’s medications. For persons with mental disorders, it is even harder than others to do this.
On this page, I want to suggest to you a free app that I think we should recommend to ALL our patients to help them in consistently remembering to take their medications, asking for refills in a timely manner, and so on.
Medisafe®
The best app for medication reminders and medication management that I know of (as of July 2021) is Medisafe
The app is available on both the Apple App Store and on Google Play. And, it is FREE! I am now recommending it to ALL my patients.
Note: Dr. Mago and Simple and Practical Medical Education, LLC have no relationship of any kind, financial or otherwise, with the company behind this app.
Below, I’ll show screenshots showing you the basic steps in using the Medisafe app. Then, I’ll point out which of the optional features I think are particularly useful.
Step 1: Create a profile
Step 2: Add your medications
Step 3: Add a reminder for the medication
Step 4: The reminder rings and appears on the screen
When the app reminds you of the medication at the time you selected, it offers you 3 options (see image below):
Step 5: Medication recorded as having been taken that day
The Medisafe app doesn’t just help patients to remember to take their medications. It has many other cool optional features as well. Here are a few of the ones I think are most useful. Here are a few of the ones I think are most useful.
Add the shape and color of the medication
Since a lot of medications are generics, the shape and color of the tablets vary from manufacturer to manufacturer. In the Medisafe app, the patient—or a family member helping the patient—can enter not only the name of the medication but also its shape and color (see image below). Among other things, this can help patients to pick out the right medication from the many pills in their pillboxes.
Add a “Medifriend” who will be contacted if you don’t take your medication
This is a truly fantastic feature! The patient can invite a “Medifriend”—a family member or friend—by entering their mobile phone number or email address. If the patient doesn’t take their medication, the Medifriend gets notified (see image below) and can follow up with the patient. How cool is that?
Adding a reminder to ask for a refill
I’m sure all prescribing clinicians are frustrated by last-minute requests for prescription refills. The Medisafe app not only reminds patients to take their medications but can also be set up to remind them that they are running out of the mediation and should request a refill.
Set reminders for doctor’s appointments
Medisafe doesn’t only help patients to take their medications consistently and to remember to ask for refills. It can also be set up to remind patients about doctor appointments. Along with in-app reminders, the app can also be synced with the calendar on the patient’s phone.
Send reports about the medications taken to your doctor
As discussed above, adding a “Medifriend” who will get notified if the patient doesn’t mark the medication as taken. In addition to that, we can request the patient to send the doctor a “status report” about when they took their medications (see image below).
Member comments
One of our valued, long-term Members says about the Medisafe app:
“Yes, MediSafe is a super great app that I’ve been using myself with success for a couple years now. Love that it works on my Apple Watch. It is easy to get busy with something or in a conversation and miss your medication. MediSafe always reminds me to break away for a moment and take my statin medicine. When I recommend it to patients they come back and give me a big thank you. It truly helps compliance.”
If you do recommend the Medisafe app to your patients or use it yourself, please do let us know what your experience with the app is by posting a comment under “Leave a Reply” below.
Related Pages
BEST apps and websites for improving sleep
BEST apps and websites for meditation
BEST apps and websites to check drug interactions
BEST apps for setting alarms as reminders
The BEST apps and websites for mental health (Main page)
References
PENDING
References not used on this page
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Haff N, Lauffenburger JC, Morawski K, Ghazinouri R, Noor N, Kumar S, Juusola J, Choudhry NK. The accuracy of self-reported blood pressure in the Medication adherence Improvement Support App For Engagement-Blood Pressure (MedISAFE-BP) trial: Implications for pragmatic trials. Am Heart J. 2020 Feb;220:68-72. doi: 10.1016/j.ahj.2019.10.018. Epub 2019 Nov 14. PMID: 31785551.
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Sherwin LB, Deroche CB, Yevu-Johnson J, Matteson-Kome M, Bechtold M, Jahnke I, Alexander GL. Usability Evaluation of a Smartphone Medication Reminder Application in Patients Treated With Short-term Antibiotic. Comput Inform Nurs. 2021 Apr 29. doi: 10.1097/CIN.0000000000000747. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 33935203.
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Yes, MediSafe is a super great app that I’ve been using myself with success for a couple years now. Love that it works on my Apple Watch. It is easy to get busy with something or in a conversation and miss your medication. MediSafe always reminds me to break away for a moment and take my statin medicine. When I recommend it to patients they come back and give me a big thank you. It truly helps compliance.