If you are dealing with a complex medication regimen, it is inevitable that difficulties arise when trying to follow your treatment plan to a T. Not only are there various doses to take into consideration, but each drug also has its own frequency and precautions to consider. With the help of a pill tracker app, one can better keep track of and follow their drug schedule exactly as it is prescribed by their healthcare provider. With increased adherence to treatment, there also comes a greater sense of control over one’s health and well-being.
What are the features of a pill tracker app?
Traditionally, patients have relied on using a medication chart or template to keep track of their medications. Today, applications such as CareClinic allow for these charts to become virtually available on iOS, Android, and diverse computer systems, such as Mac.
The CareClinic app offers a number of features that can assist with medication management. The various functions, flexibility, and unique adherence system used by CareClinic make it the best pill tracker app, surpassing Medisafe and apps by Walgreens.
Pill Reminders
The pill reminder feature allows you to set up reminders for different drugs. You can add information regarding the dosage, frequency, dosage form (pill, tablet, and capsule) and possible side effects. The application can even act as an interaction tracker, outlining any potential drug-to-drug interactions.
Once drug reminders have been created, the application will send push notifications to remind patients to take their specific medications. If patients do not confirm having taken the medication by clicking on this notification, the app will continue to send reminders (snooze feature).
Reminders are an easy method to help ensure adherence to medication. You can also set reminders for prescription refills and doctor appointments (customizable reminders). You can view your treatment plan in calendar mode, as you would in your Google calendar.
Your Care team
Within the CareClinic application, you can create your own care team by adding friends, colleagues, family members and diverse healthcare professionals. Your care team can keep up-to-date with the treatments you are taking, as well as how you are feeling and the progress made with regard to improving your health.
Support for Complex Medication Schedules
As mentioned above, you can use the application to create and easily view a complex medication schedule. This is especially useful for those who are suffering from multiple conditions and must take various drugs, vitamins and supplements. The application includes both OTC and Rx medication in its lists of options, allowing users to select the specific medications they are using and add them to their care plans.
Monthly reports to share with your doctor
All your medication-related information, as well as any other details about the medical conditions you are suffering from, is stored within the application. At the end of each month, a monthly report is created. This report contains a summary of all medication information and can be shared with your healthcare provider.
Tracking health measurements
The CareClinic health app allows you to log not only your medication but also useful health measurements. You can record your weight, blood pressure, blood sugar, insulin and other values. Such information is important for those living with chronic conditions, such as hypertension, diabetes, cancer, depression, anxiety, multiple sclerosis, HIV or Crohn’s disease.
What medications can you add to a pill tracker app?
Patients can add any kind of medication. You can go to the doctor and, depending on your treatment needs, establish a medication regimen. Your doctor can provide information on each drug, including frequency and dosage, as well as advice on potential interactions and side effects.
Record medications for specific conditions
For instance, if you have diabetes, you can add insulin doses and other anti-diabetic medications. Keeping track of your glucose levels and establishing reminders for insulin shots is also a great health habit.
If you have high blood pressure, you can add your antihypertensive medication and monitor your blood pressure values. Patients living with mental health issues, such as anxiety or depression, can track their mood and enter prescribed medications. Patients can track their antidepressants or anti-anxiety drugs all in one place.
You can also record medication prescribed for acute conditions or less severe medical issues. For example, if you have been diagnosed with a bacterial infection, you can create an antibiotic treatment plan. This will help to ensure that you take your medication on time and complete an entire course. This not only reduces the infection but also decreases the risk of antibiotic resistance.
Medications for women and children
Women who take birth control pills can benefit from the medication log as well. When it comes to this form of contraception, it is essential to take the pill on a daily basis, otherwise, there is a risk of becoming pregnant. CareClinic is an effective method of birth control pill tracking, helping women to eliminate the risk of unplanned pregnancies.
Parents can use the application to record medication for their children, especially since children cannot keep track of their own treatments. The app includes an extremely useful kids pill tracker to help busy parents ensure that their children take their medication as prescribed. For children and general patients who suffer from chronic conditions, CareClinic helps with medication reminders and overall health improvement.
Increasing medication adherence with a pill tracker app
In a world where medication adherence has become a huge issue, modern technology allows us to follow our treatments promptly and effortlessly. With CareClinic, one will no longer find it difficult to take his/her medication at the right time and in the correct dosage. Forgetfulness will not be an issue and communicating to doctors and healthcare workers about a patient’s progress will become more efficient.
Failing to adhere to prescribed medication plans can result in symptoms becoming worse and even life-threatening. Moreover, when treatments are not taken as prescribed, they cannot work their full effect and there is also an increased risk of side-effects. For these reasons, apps like CareClinic are powerful tools.
CareClinic sends reminders for each medication added to the treatment plan. Still, medication adherence requires the efforts of the patient. Many patients find it difficult to adjust to the usage of technology for medication management. It can be confusing to learn all of the features but, fortunately, CareClinic has a user-friendly interface that is simple to learn and utilize.
As one becomes familiar with the features of the application, he/she will also feel comfortable creating a treatment plan and adding all of the medications that he/she is taking. The familiarity of the application will eliminate the anxiety many people experience when using new tools. CareClinic simply lays out the steps to follow about how to take his/her medication exactly according to the prescribed treatment plan.
Managing medications with a pill tracker app
When using multiple medications, it is important to be aware of the adverse interactions that may occur. Polypharmacy is the use of multiple medications concurrently by a single patient. It is very common among older adults, who often use four or more medications simultaneously.
While polypharmacy is not necessarily a negative practice, healthcare professionals emphasize the importance of constant monitoring for patients who engage in polypharmacy. This is because there may be adverse interactions between drugs, decreased quality of life, and diminished cognition and mobility. Polypharmacy is a growing issue as many countries are experiencing an aging baby-boomer population. An expanding population of older adults is also a result of increased life expectancy due to improved health services and technologies worldwide.
Knowledge regarding the mechanisms and effects of individual drugs is not enough to ensure that side effects from interactions do not occur. Side effects from drug interactions also vary between patients due to differences in genetic make-up. Therefore, simply deprescribing or reducing the number of medications that one takes is not always the solution. If you are taking multiple medications, it is important to talk to your doctor, who will have experience and expertise in dealing with polypharmacy.
At home, patients engaging in polypharmacy can use CareClinic to keep track of and monitor their medications. This pill tracker app allows users to view all of the information for their medications in one place. Patients have access to information about each medication’s use, dosage, administration instructions, and side effects. One is also able to easily view the potential interactions that may occur between their medications. The app provides patients with autonomy to manage their medications and health.
Deprescribing medications
If someone is experiencing adverse drug interactions, it makes sense for their physician to reduce the number of medications that they are taking. However, there are many barriers that physicians and patients face when trying to deprescribe medications. For physicians, there is a fear of consequences associated with deprescribing. Some medical conditions such has hypertension and heart disease are very complex and require multiple medications to manage their symptoms.
Many physicians also report some doubts in their skills and knowledge to deprescribe. The process of deprescribing varies with each patient. It can be extremely difficult for physicians to take into account multiple medical conditions and patient preferences. It is important for physicians to collaborate with the other healthcare professionals and caregivers involved with the particular patient. Furthermore, patients often believe that medications are the solution any health issue. Therefore, many patients fear deprescribing and the act of reducing their treatment regimens.
A team approach is required to ensure the best possible outcomes for patients. The care team may include a primary provider, pharmacist, nurse, counselor, physical therapist, occupational therapist, and others involved in patient care. Collaboration between caregivers allows for a holistic approach to treatment and health management.
Deprescribing is a successful solution to reducing the adverse effects of polypharmacy in many cases. However, in cases where patients must adhere to a complex drug regimen, the CareClinic app can greatly assist in providing drug reminders. The app also ensures that patients have easy and constant access to credible information about their medications and dosages.
Smartphone App to help deal with Pill Burden
The pill burden increases with the number of pills that a patient takes regularly. It includes the act of storing, consuming, keeping track of and understanding the various medications in one’s treatment plan.
If a patient has a high pill burden, their compliance to their drug regimen decreases. This is due to the need to consume a large quantity of pills or other forms of medication on a regular basis. As pill burden increases, the risk for side effects and adverse drug interactions increases as well. High pill burden can lead to increased risk of hospitalization, errors in taking medications, and stress experienced by the patient. It is also associated with increased costs for the medications that one must take, as well as for the treatment of adverse side effects.
Patients often experience high pill burden when taking antiretroviral drugs for HIV. However, high pill burden is also experienced by patients who take drugs for diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, inflammatory bowel disease, constipation, osteoporosis, lymphedema, and depression.
It is important to reduce pill burden in order to improve adherence to treatment plans. CareClinic can assist patients in the process of managing and reducing their pill burden. If patients must adhere to large drug regimens in order to manage their complex conditions, the CareClinic app can help patients remember when to take their medications. Memory tricks have been shown to improve adherence to treatment plans and thus, reduce pill burden.
Patients with complex drug regimens often associate taking their medications with their mealtimes. Others record their dosage on the box or store their medications in specific places to remember to take them. Regardless of which memory tricks you use, CareClinic is a platform that allows one to set up reminders for all medications.
How to use the CareClinic app for Pill Tracking
This is the interface you will see upon creating your account.
You can create a care plan, including any medication you are taking.
For example, if you are taking Methotrexate for a chronic rheumatologic condition, you can simply add it to your plan, mentioning the dose you have been recommended.
The medication in question will appear in your treatment plan.
Reminders can be enabled and set up within the application.
On the calendar, you can see active and inactive reminders, as well as refill reminders. You can also see medication adherence, medicine frequency, and additional health-related information.
The app can create reports containing information about medication adherence, symptoms, and different therapies that you have tried. The application can also make correlations between your symptoms and medication.
If you have been diagnosed with a new condition, the first thing you should do is add it to your care plan. You can then link the treatment that you have been prescribed to the symptoms experienced.
Medication statistics
These are a few interesting medication statistics:
- Between 51% and 59% of the population in the United States use prescription drugs.
- The rate of polypharmacy, taking more than one drug, has increased to 15% (2012).
- The prevalence of use has increased for a number of drugs. Such drugs include antidepressants, medication to lower lipids, muscle relaxants, and proton pump inhibitors.
- People over the age of 65 constitute 12% of the US population. These individuals require 34% of all prescription-based medication and 30% of all OTC medications.
- Antibiotics and painkillers present a continuously increased demand. This demand persists despite education programs on taking treatments as prescribed in order to decrease antibiotic resistance and addiction.
- In 2009, the value of prescribed medication reached $250 billion, accounting for 12% of personal healthcare expenditures.
- In 2002, approximately 13% of the population in the United States abused psychotherapeutic medication. 10 years later, the percentage increased, with 4 million Americans identified as at risk for medication abuse.
- Women take more medication than men, particularly for mental health issues. Studies show that 1 in 4 women, between the age of 50 and 64, take at least one antidepressant.
These statistics draw attention to the fact that one should consume medications as prescribed by their doctor. Instructions about dosage and frequency should be respected. All patients should always contact their doctor if side effects occur. Both medication abuse and medication non-adherence can lead to life-threatening complications. (R, R, R)
CareClinic, your best tool for medication management
This health app is not just a simple medication reminder. CareClinic is a comprehensive tool for adequate medication management. It allows you to bring together your medical information, health data, and ongoing treatments. Therefore, you can remain informed about all aspects of your health.
It can also be used as a pill lid tracker, alleviating the stress and task of manually timing your medication intakes. Furthermore, it highlights potential drug interactions and offers a health journal to document different aspects based on your personal diagnoses.
The application is available for free and can be used on various smartphones and even computers. It complies with the current privacy laws and safeguards your medication information. Moreover, the app seamlessly performs through a sleek and innovative user-friendly interface. CareClinic can assist both patients and physicians in improving medication management and adherence to complex treatment plans.
