People are often forgetful, especially when it comes to taking their medication. A pill reminder app can help people keep track of their medication schedule and ensure that they never miss a dose. The app can send reminders to the user’s phone or email. This article will explore the need for a pill reminder and touch on topics to explore why tracking your medications and health is important.
Why use a pill reminder app over an organizer?
Medication adherence is important for many reasons. It can prevent you from getting sick, ensure that your medications are working properly, and avoid unwanted side effects. People often skip pills because they forget to take them or they don’t have the time. A pill reminder app can help you keep track of your medication schedule and ensure that you never miss a dose. CareClinic can handle multiple medications and can also help track all other parts of your treatment as well. For each medication, you can set up to 8 reminders with titration.
Why use a pill reminder app over a pill reminder box or medication dispenser?
A pill reminder app offers several advantages over a pillbox or dispenser. First, a pill reminder app can be used anywhere. You can take it with you when you travel and use it at home. Second, a reminder app can be customized to your specific needs. You can set it to remind you to take your medication, vitamins, supplements, or even measurements at any certain time of day, you can even set medication refill reminders in the app. Third, a pill app can be used to track your progress. You can see how well you are sticking to your medication schedule in logs and charts which can then be shared remotely or analyzed to optimize your treatment.
What about a pre-packaged medication system?
One way to improve prescription adherence is to use a pre-packaged system, such as a blister pack. However, a blister pack is only good when you remember to take it. It may be a part of your strategy to enhance medication compliance by not forgetting single doses, but if you don’t remember to take it at all, how it is presented matters little. This is why a reminder solution is also needed alongside, it is there to help remind you to take medications whether it is 3 times a day or 2 times a day, it will always be there.
Rated the Best Pill Reminder Alarm App
Over 500,000 people use CareClinic around the world. CareClinic has been recommended as the gold standard in medication adherence. Knowing which pill to take, when to take it, and taking the correct dosage can be difficult.
It can be even more difficult if you are responsible for someone else’s health. With CareClinic’s CareTeam module you can track the health of all dependents in one place electronically and stay on top of everyone’s health.
Manage medications for all chronic conditions
CareClinic works great for managing chronic conditions and symptoms related to any type of treatment, from cancer to Alzheimer’s disease. Simply add your medications, treatments, and appointments to CareClinic, and we’ll remind you when it’s time to take your pills or go for a checkup. We’ll even keep track of your symptoms and side effects so you can easily share them with your doctor.
CareClinic supports many illnesses
- Alzheimer’s Disease
- Arthritis
- Asthma
- Cancer
- Crohn’s Disease
- Mental Health such as Depression, Anxiety, and Bipolar Disorders
- Diabetes
- Heart Disease
- HIV/AIDS
- Lyme Disease
CareClinic works great for managing chronic health conditions and symptoms related to any type of treatment, from cancer to Alzheimer’s disease. Simply add your medications, treatments, and appointments to CareClinic, and we’ll remind you when it’s time to take your pills or go for a checkup. We’ll even keep track of your symptoms and side effects so you can easily share them with your doctor.
Manage Multiple Medication Regimens
Chronic conditions require ongoing medical attention and limit activities of daily living.
1 in 2 adults has at least one chronic disease.
1 in 4 adults has two or more chronic diseases.
86% of all health care dollars are spent on people with chronic conditions. Due to these reasons and more, there has been a gradual increase in people taking multiple pills at the same time.
Polypharmacy is defined as the concurrent use of multiple drugs to treat a single condition or multiple conditions. When four or more drugs are taken, it is referred to as high-risk polypharmacy. With the increase in chronic disease and an aging population, the prevalence of polypharmacy will continue to rise and so will the complexity and forgetfulness.
To keep track of your medications and what they’re used for, it’s recommended that you create a list that you update regularly if you take multiple pills. This can be easily managed through the Notes functionality within Care Plans in the CareClinic App.
Helps manage birth control pills
it is estimated that nearly half of all pregnancies are unplanned. Many of these pregnancies occur because the woman did not take her birth control pill as directed. Birth control pills are most effective when taken at the same time every day.
A pill reminder app can help you keep track of your birth control pill schedule and ensure that you never miss a dose. With CareClinic, you can easily set a reminder for it to arrive discreetly, or use the snooze option if you forget. Enter how many pills you have and receive reminders for when it’s time to get a new prescription.
Great for Caregiving: Manage Kids, Family, and Elderly
CareClinic is used by families, the elderly, doctors, and nurses. CareClinic ensures that patients take their medication as prescribed by their doctor. The app also provides an easy way for family members to check on the progress and vitals of their loved ones remotely.
Studies have shown that seniors not taking medication accordingly have resulted in a higher frequency of hospitalization.(R) This is due to a poor recollection of prescribed pills, a lack of knowledge on which pills are needed, and inconsistencies as to when pills need to be taken have indicated a higher frequency of hospitalization.
Importing Pills and Getting Started
Let’s answer a few more detailed questions regarding the CareClinic app that you may have below. Regarding inputting entries, the types of schedules the app can handle, and how the app goes beyond a typical pill reminder in helping you track things that all influence your overall wellness which may include total bathroom trips, nutrition, physical exercise, and sleep.
Different types of medication schedules
There are many different types of medication schedules, so it’s important to figure out which one you need to follow. Depending on your medications and your lifestyle, you may need to take pills multiple times a day, once a day, or even just once a week. CareClinic can handle reminders for these schedules easily.
There are also advanced routines that require cycling through different medications or taking different doses at different times. Some require a different number of pills on different days, while others need you to take the same pill at different times depending on the day of the week or as needed.
PRN means “as needed.” This type of schedule means that you only take the medication when you’re experiencing symptoms or pain. This could be for a headache, trouble sleeping, anxiety, nausea, etc. PRN schedules can be tricky to remember, so having a reminder can be very helpful. CareClinic allows you to easily input PRN entries through the Check-in screen and then tap on Medications and select any medication you have taken as needed.
Drug Interactions, along with Supplement Effects
Other suggestions include negative interactions between supplements and drugs. CareClinic goes a step further and also provides beneficial synergistic effects between supplements that you may not have known about previously.
All suggestions must be confirmed by a licensed medical professional and are for informational purposes only and should not be taken as medical advice.
What types of medications can it handle?
CareClinic can track any type of medication treatment, including:
- Vitamins
- Herbal supplements
- Over-the-counter medications
- Prescription medications (RX)
- Digital therapeutics
These can be in any form including:
- Pills
- Tablets
- Capsules
- Liquid
- Injections/IVs
- Patches
- Suppositories
- Ointments/creams
- Powder
How to import medications into CareClinic
- You can also easily input your pills onto CareClinic by taking a picture of your prescription or of any pill bottle. This will allow the app to quickly analyze your medication and input the correct data and dosage.
- Quickly select the exact type, color, size, and strength of any medication or supplement you may be taking.
- Set pill reminders for the treatment you just added, whether it is weekly, daily, or even hourly reminders. Have full flexibility as to what to take and when.
- Take it a step further and record the side effects, purpose, and effectiveness of individual drugs or your entire care plan.
- Input the doses on hand to activate refill reminders or to just keep track of your inventory. Refill reminders trigger when you are low on doses, which is calculated not on the number of medications but rather the size of each dose.
- Setting reminders ensures that you are aware of the medications you are taking and note down any side effects they might bring.
How to Setup Pill Notifications and Reminders
You may customize reminders and notifications that pop up in many ways. Some less-known features include receiving email reminders as opposed to push notifications. Keep in mind if you have a wearable device such as an Apple watch these reminders will also show up directly on your watch as well. Below we answer a few more common questions regarding notifications:
What if I miss a reminder?
To enhance adherence, you may receive pill reminders in a variety of ways. Reminders may be Marked as Taken, Snoozed or Skipped. By marking pills as taken, we keep a comprehensive log of your activities to be reviewed at a later date. At any time, you can pause reminders on any device and later resume them without having to re-enter the reminder details. No longer taking a pill? No Problem. Set an End date for the medication to keep track.
If you are in a rush or just can’t get to your phone or have many other notifications in your notification center and worry about missing a notification, you can always activate “Persistent Reminders” which will render the notification every 5 minutes till the notification is tapped, and marked as taken, skipped or snoozed again! How’s that for persistence?
Are alarm sounds included?
Yes, there are many different alarm sounds that you can select from to help you remind yourself to take your pills, or just give you a general notification. You can also select to only vibrate or enable the default system sound for notifications as well.
What about privacy and security?
We take your privacy and security seriously. All data is encrypted locally on your device and in transmission. You can even password-protect or use biometrics (such as fingerprint or face verification) in the app if you choose. We also do not sell or share any of your data with anyone.
CareClinic also can provide “generic reminders” which can be useful if you need to be reminded of your medications but do not wish for your mobile device to render the name and strength of your medication within the notification itself.
What else can CareClinic do?
As a complete wellness app, CareClinic ships with many “Trackers & Modules”. As you may guess, Trackers are a great way to “check in” and longitudinally record data to review and act on. Some of the Trackers we currently have are:
- Symptom Tracker
- Mood Tracker
- Food & Diet Tracker
- Fluid Tracker
- Therapy Tracker
- Physical Activity Tracker
- Measurements & Vital Signs Tracker
- Stool Tracker (with timer and bristol stool scale)
- Sleep Tracker (with timer and factors)
- Factors Tracker for tracking environmental factors or quickly jotting down ADL’s
“Modules” are a way of safely storing your medical data in one source for easy accessibility. CarClinic has many modules such as:
- My Care Team: Automatically share all your data with your care team or monitor your own dependents
- My Reminders: Set reminders for anything such as medication refills, pills, appointments, symptom checks
- My Goals: Set goals and see how you are progressing in charts and logs
- My Appointments: To set appointment reminders
- My Care Plans: To track your entire treatment
- My Conditions
- My Immunizations
- My Pharmacy
- My Labs & Reports
- Medication Library
- Exercise Library
- Health Integrations
- Health Assessments and Forms
- Guided Care Plans
There are many more modules available and we’re constantly adding more!
Health Diary with Journal Prompts
Great for mental health, if you are feeling stuck you can use any of the built-in prompts to start journaling. You can also use the free text function to document anything you are feeling.
Symptom Tracking
In addition to tracking your pills, you can also track your symptoms and discover correlations. You can easily track how frequently you feel a symptom and it’s severity and compare it to things such as nutrition, sleep, weather, and other factors.
If you’ve been diagnosed with hypertension, some symptoms you may experience could be:
- Severe headache
- Nosebleeds
- Shortness of breath
- Vision changes
- Chest pain
Tracking your symptoms in CareClinic can be helpful because you can then discuss your findings with your doctor and objectively see how your treatment is progressing. You can also set “symptom check reminders” to remember to record values so you can see a more visible pattern emerge in logs and charts.
Fluid in-Take & Nutrition Tracking
Alcohol, licorice, grapefruit, and salt are examples of foods that should be monitored with specific medications. Drinking alcohol can be dangerous as it can interfere with many medications. You may also want to confirm if your medications are to be taken on an empty stomach, with a fat source, or after a meal. Being able to quickly determine when you had your last meal can help in determining if it’s safe to take your next pill.
Not only does CareClinic have all of these great features, but we also integrate with many devices and wearables. This gives you the ability to track even more metrics about your health. We also have a great community of users who are always willing to help and support each other.
Log Measurements like blood glucose or blood pressure
The measurement trackers allow you to log any measurement that may need to be stored as part of your treatment. You can record measurements as frequently as needed and chart them alongside any other tracked value such as medications to determine their efficacy. Remember all trackers allow for reminders to be set, as such you can set a reminder to log your heart rate, pulse or blood sugar at any time.
Health & Accessibility Integrations
CareClinic syncs with Apple Health and Google Fit to automatically import your data. This saves you time from entering the same information again along with not making any mistakes. CareClinic also integrates with Siri and Siri Shortcuts on iOS to help you quickly automate entire flows directly through voice!
Can I export my medication history?
All data entered into CareClinic can be easily shared electronically with caregivers or be printed in PDF or CSV format from the Logs screen.
Can CareClinic manage multiple time zones?
You may manually change or adjust your time zone if you are traveling to make sure you continue to take your drugs at the right times regardless of where you are or will be.
What about lady pill reminders?
This refers to birth control pills with reminders that include on and off cycles, missed or skipped pills, and refill reminders. The birth control cycle is based on a woman’s menstrual cycle and typically involves taking a pill at the same time every day for three weeks, then taking no pills (or placebo) during the fourth week. A lady pill reminder can help remind women when it is time to start or stop taking their birth control pills, ensuring they stay on track with the cycle. By helping to make sure women remember to take their medications as prescribed, a lady pill reminder can help reduce unwanted pregnancies and maintain reliable contraceptive use. Aside from reminders related to contraceptives, the app can also be used to remind women of other health-related tasks such as taking vitamins or medicines, getting health screenings and mammograms, etc.
How do I analyze my medication history?
After each check-in you are may view your Logs which is a timeline of when, how, and why you took each medication. Your logs contain details from all your medication reminders that you Marked as Taken along with details from all other trackers. Your logs help provide additional insights so you can quickly answer questions such as:
- How many times did I take my medication? (and in what time frame?)
- What was the average dosage?
- Did I skip any doses? (and on which days?)
- Was there a time when I was more or less compliant?
- What were my peak and trough levels?
- Do I need to adjust my dosage or schedule?
- Is the medication leading to additional symptoms?
Viewing your charts will enable to you get a visual representation of how you or a dependent has been doing along with providing you with built-in additional Insights and the ability to Compare different modalities… such as Medication and Symptoms, Medications and Sleep, or even Symptoms and Nutrition. Charts are further summarized with Correlations to help you make sense of them, which will alert you to strong correlations based on your treatment that can then be brought up with your provider. It really is the best-med helper!
What is recall bias and why is it important to know?
Recall bias is a type of cognitive bias that occurs when people recall information in a way that is biased or distorted. For example, people might remember an event in a way that is more favorable to them, or they might forget details that would make them look bad. This can lead to inaccurate memories and false beliefs.
This bias persists when you attend a doctor’s office and are perhaps asked about your routine or medication adherence. CareClinic keeps you accountable based on your logs and helps you build healthy habits.
How to build healthy medication habits
CareClinic’s Care Plans feature helps you to develop and stick to a routine by breaking down your daily tasks into manageable steps for all modalities, not just medication reminders. This way, you can focus on building healthy habits one day at a time. Plus, our reminders keep you on track so you never miss a beat. Care Plans let you store modalities that you engage in often for quicker check-ins and help populate the “Today” tab in the App which becomes a checklist of things you need to complete daily. Your streak is displayed at the top of the Today screen and helps you remain motivated by checking in daily.
Go beyond the Pill for acute and chronic health management
Medication adherence is one of the most important factors in disease management. CareClinic was created with this idea in mind, and our integrations with wearables and other devices make it easier than ever for you to track your health and adherence. CareClinic supports all chronic conditions and works especially well for those that require a complex regimen. With our extensive list of features, you can manage everything from diabetes to mental health, and more.
CareClinic is the best way to manage your medications, track your health, and develop healthy habits. With our integrations with devices and wearables, you can track even more metrics about your health. Plus, our reminders keep you on track so you never miss a beat. Whether you’re traveling or at home, CareClinic helps you manage your medications and stay healthy. CareClinic is available for free on iOS and Android and has thousands of five-star reviews across all platforms. It is more than just a medicine reminder, it helps you manage your overall well-being! Try it for free today by clicking here.
