How to Develop A Pill Reminder & Medication Tracker Mobile App

Technology has transformed our lives in a number of ways, be it in terms of eCommerce, food delivery, taxi health, or even healthcare. A few years back no one would have thought that technology will allow them to take care of their health in such a smart manner or would change how people monitor or diagnose. Earlier despite know how crucial taking medicines is, people would still often forget to take their meds. In fact, as per Johns Hopkins, medical errors tend to be the third leading cause of death after cancer and heart disease.

In United States, 50 percent patients do not take their prescribed medications and this causes 125,000 deaths in a year, which is one every four minutes.

However, technology has the solution to this big problem as well, through its Pill Reminder & Medication Tracker App that reminds the app users to take their prescribed medicine dosages. They work to keep people updated in regard to taking the medicines on time and are immensely helpful for elderly people who are more likely to forget to take their pills on time. And this way these apps greatly contribute to keeping people healthy. So, in this blog, we will be exploring everything about Pill Reminder & Medication Tracker apps. And first, let’s begin by exploring how these apps solve health issues.

Market Statistics Related To Pill Reminder Mobile Apps

Usually, people prefer to not discuss personal health issues, however, it is quite normal to have prescription medication. As per Mayo Clinic, around 70% of Americans are taking one prescription medication on a minimum and more than half are taking at least two. However, many-a-times it happens that people fail to develop this habit of taking their prescribed meds on time, and here Pill Reminder apps can be of great help.

U.S. Adults that would use an app to track illness & medication 2017, by age

Besides improving the health, medical adherence also saves money, as one research states that every 10 percent improvement in the medical adherence reduces the healthcare cost by 29%, while another study reveals every 1 percent improvement in adherence ends up saving around $50 in the healthcare spending.

Some additional statistics

• Amongst the hypertensive patients, 89,000 untimely deaths could have been avoided each year through appropriate medication treatment.
• Most common behaviors are: One in two people missed a medication dosage, one in three forgot whether they took the pills, one in four couldn’t manage time to refill, and one in five patients are readmitted to the hospital just within 30 days and a half of these are said to be non-adherence.
• Between 41 percent and 59 percent of mentally suffering patients are taking medication infrequently and some are not even taking any, and this adds to the societal issues of suicide, unemployment, and homelessness.
• As per CVS, around 50 percent of people with prescriptions for a Chronic illness like Heart disease, stop taking the meds within the first year.
• CVS states that 68% of physicians are interested to receive notices in case patients become non-adherent.

How On-Demand Pill Reminder & Medication Tracker Apps Help In Staying Healthy?

As per the research, 45.8 percent of the total US population requires at least one prescription drug in a month.

When forgotten to take these prescribed medicines, it could even result in disease getting worse, leading to hospitalization or even untimely death. Known as medication non-adherence, this phenomenon has severe consequences in the United States. As per the studies, 20-30% of the medication prescriptions never get filled and approximately 50% of medicines that belong to chronic illnesses are not taken as per the prescription. And the main reason behind this kind of medication non-adherence is that the patients mostly forget to take medications, and there is 39 percent of these people, whereas 20 percent do not renew the prescribed medications on time, and 10 percent of patients procrastinate to get their refills.

But the good part is that with the usage of Pill Reminder and Medication Tracker apps, this issue can be resolved. These apps come around as an ideal solution for this kind of negligence. Creating a pill reminder app with a social support system easily tracks the medication doses of the patients. Also, most of these apps have a feature that also connects the family members, so they can also analyze and track whether their loved ones are taking their medication on time. This functionality encourages a connected person to keep a check on the pill status of the patient.

This way the development of pill reminder and medication tracker apps allow the patients to lead a lot healthier life through the user-friendly functionality.

How Do Pill Reminder Apps Work?

These data-driven pill management platforms are based on B2B & B2C business model and they usually collaborate with the drug retailers, pharma companies, health care providers, health insurers, to create an ecosystem that offers enhanced patient engagement to raise medication adherence by using the main causes of the medication non-adherence information in the real-time.

At the moment there are many such apps available out there, helping a large number of people to keep their health on track. The working of these apps is quite simple as it involves a few simple steps: download the apps, add the medication, set personalized reminders for the pills, and get alerts on time. Also, the app enables to snooze reminders and then reminds again till the time it is marked as taken.

Once the account is created on these platforms, it backups user data on the app’s cloud platform, hence even if the user’s phone is stolen or lost, or the user requires logging in from another device, they still would be able to access their data. These apps have a feature where it allows the app users to connect with their friends/family members. So, each time the user misses a dose of the scheduled pill, the app will send an alert to the connected person.

And this is how exactly Pill Reminder apps work, now let’s explore the types of Medication Reminder mobile apps.

What Are The Types Of Medication Reminder Mobile App?

There are mainly three types of medication reminder mobile apps are available out there, such as:

Simple Medication Reminders (SMRs)

These medication apps are mainly for the patients and they offer some basic functionalities, such as customizable alerts and flexible scheduling.

Advanced Medication Reminders (AMRs)

Along with the basic functionalities that come with SMRs, AMRs also offer time-zone support, medication pictures, user notes, tracking of late & missed dosages.

Medication Management Apps (MMAs)

This combines the functionalities of two of the previous types and also enables the users to create multiple accounts, manage & store the health data and also share information with the doctors.

What Are The Benefits Of A Pill Reminder Mobile App?

There are a number of ways in which Pill Reminder apps can benefit their users, and here we talk about them:

• These apps offer simple and user-friendly functionality enabling quick scheduling.
• Often it happens that patients end up taking the wrong medication or skip dosages. However, the pill reminder apps offer automatic reminders helping the patients to stick to their schedules.
• There are times when the patients forget refilling prescriptions but through these apps, they receive reminders for refilling the prescriptions a week prior to the supply running out.
• Using the apps, users will be able to access personalized medication history in an intuitive format.
• These apps offer flexibility for customizing the schedule according to the requirement for each medication.
• The apps allow to create a schedule quite accurately and it can also be edited easily.
• Pill Reminder apps remind them to take the medication by sending simple alerts on the phone so that they don’t forget important dosages.
• It is pretty easy to use these apps as they are created in a manner to offer ease and hence is that the users don’t face any hassle in using these apps.
• The apps allow to customize the alerts to remind of medications, just as desired, like some prefer sending a text, vibrate, ring, pop-up a visual notification as it is time to take the pill. Users can also indicate when they have taken the pill already or when they would like to be reminded again in some time.

Steps to Develop a Pill Reminder and Medication Tracker App

Here, we will learn how to develop a Pill Reminder and Medication Tracker App. 

1. Identify the Target Audience

First, understand who will use your app and the target audience. This way, you will get an idea about the design and functionality of the app you will create. 

2. Choose a Platform

Next, you need to decide which platform you want to develop your app: Android, iOS, or cross-platform. 

3. Design User-Friendly Interface

Choose to craft an easy-to-navigate UI for your app to make it easy for users to use and reap the benefits of it. 

4. Implement Medication Adherence Tracking Feature

Ensure you include this feature to remind the users to take their medication and alert them if they miss it. 

5. Add Extra Features

Append more features for increased customer experience, like barcode scanning for effortless medication addition, facilitating users to record symptoms or side effects, and an allergy check for safety. 

6. Testing

It is time to test the app to locate issues or bugs impacting its working. 

7. Launch and Promote the App

After you develop your app, it’s set to launch for use on the app store. Besides, market your app to reach your target audience. 

Which Are The Top Medication Tracking Mobile Apps?

Medication Tracker by Medisafe, Medication Reminder by MyTherapy,  Pill Reminder –  All in One, MedAdvisor, Mango Health, Dosecast are some of the popular mobile apps that can help you track your medicine and remind you of taking pills on time.

Key Features of Medication Tracking Mobile Apps

Digital Scheduling

Using this functionality, the users are able to create schedules (daily/weekly/monthly) entering the required information regarding their medications, such as medication names, physical descriptions of medication, dosages, and when & how they are required to be taken.

Smart Reminders

These are the alerts that pop up on the phone screen each time you are to take the medications. These alerts buzz and ding constantly until the patient has taken their dosage. There is also an advanced reminder mobile app enabling the users to postpone their medication intake. Also, these reminders prove to be very helpful for people who have hearing & vision impairments.

Pill Identifier

These are usually of two types like first there is a less convenient one that needs the user to enter in characteristics of a pill. As per that the app checks the app database for generating a list of pills having similar characteristics. In the case of a user-friendly app, it also has a feature that enables the user to upload a picture of medication so accordingly, the image analyzing algorithm finds similar pills in the database.

Nearest Drugstore

This functionality enables the users to find their nearest drugstore having the required medication in stock. There are some of the apps that even have a map integrated with navigation.

Notes Field

This feature allows the users to input particular instructions to take the medications, listing probable side-effects and adding recommendations from doctors.

Prescription Renewal Alerts

This functionality works great in notifying the app users as it is time for refilling the prescriptions. Here the messages pop up on the screen as alerts, and there are also times that once the users have received the alerts, they are then given a form for filling to refill the prescriptions. Here the app directly sends the form to the doctor.

Sync Reminders

In this functionality, the users will be able to synchronize the reminders with their smartwatches. So, they won’t need their phone all the time to stay engaged with the app.

Reports

Using this functionality, the users will be able to send their medical progress reports to the physicians or nurses.

Reminder List

This feature will enable the app users to view the medication reminder list to find out what is due in a day.

Reminder Sound

The app users can also choose the reminder sound each time the phone makes a sound, they would know which sound specifically is to remind for medication.

Track Health

Using this feature, the app users can successfully keep track of their steps taken, weight, blood pressure, health rate at all times, hence avoiding any upcoming health complications.

Automatic Backup

As soon as the user registers to the app, the registration will comprise of automatic backup and restores the HIPAA-compliant servers.

Medication Progress Reports

This functionality shows the progress registered to the health since the user started taking the medications. This helps in finding out how effective is the medication and treatment, or other measures need to be taken.

Required Medical Compliance For Meditation Tracker Apps

There are all sorts of medical compliances that a medication adherence or pill reminder app needs to follow taking from

• HIPAA for health apps
• Health Level 7: HL7 Standards
• FDA’s medical apps policy
• HITECH Act
• Health and Human Services (HHS) guidelines
• Certification with EPSC
• FDA Policy for mobile medical applications.

What Tech Stack Is Necessary For Meditation Tracker Mobile App?

How Much Does It Cost To Create A Medication Tracking Mobile Apps?

There are a number of factors that are required to be considered to find out the cost of creating a pill reminder and medication tracker app. This system is integrated with several sections of healthcare groups and this is why it requires a huge level of integration and support. Though the main factors affecting the cost of developing such an app are:

• Features & Functionalities
• Advance & Additional Features
• Third-party API Integrations
• Certificates & Compliances
• Location of the Development Company
• Size of Development team

These are the important factors that are to be considered to calculate the cost of creating a medication tracker mobile app. Also, to give a rough estimate, the cost to develop a pill reminder app can be around $25000-$30000 with basic functionalities integrated and for a single app platform like Android or iOS, whereas if the app is integrated with advanced features and various third-party API integrations, and created for more than one platform, then the cost doubles up as well, taking it to around $50000-$60000.