Here’s what we know. Taking medications as prescribed is important – it may seem obvious but if you don’t take your medication you are not going to get the benefit of the treatment prescribed by your doctor. There are plenty of reasons why people don’t and it is as high as 50% (as detailed in “Engaging Patients to Take their Medications” show with Tom Kottler from Healthprize, and this number is worldwide so this is not just about the prices and affordability of drugs here in the US – there are other things going on.
So what are your incremental steps to improving your personal and family medication management? I break this down into the organization and the use of Pill Boxes, Scheduling and the use of a smartphone application and the one I use and the most popular is Medisafe. I had the fortune of running into Omri Shor the founder of the company some time back – I was already a fan and had been impressed with their focus on detail and responsiveness to feedback and they have added a host of features but you can focus on the basics:
- Enter your medications
- Create a schedule for taking your medication
- Every day you will get a reminder at the allotted time together with details of the medications you are taking
And with the MediFriend option, someone else can help you manage your medications.
So Incremental steps for medication Management
- Take stock of your medications for you and your family
- Get Yourself a suitable organizer – several if you can so you can prepare a few weeks at a time in advance
- Download and install and set up a medication management application on your phone such as Medisafe and enter in your medication and start keeping regular track
