No good pill reminder apps.

[Rod]

A few weeks ago after a somewhat ominous cardiology review I was put on a new generation blood thinning medication twice daily. It’s not really all that bad and it was a precautionary decision based on my age and medical history.
I have been quite proud of the fact that I have been essentially medication free up to now, except for episodic courses of antibiotics or short term, as required meds.
Now it’s looking as though I will be on two medications twice a day for the rest of my life.
So, I thought there must be an iPhone app that would remind me to take my meds, keep a record of names, dosage and give reorder reminders.
I also wanted an app that had an Apple Watch app, a proper complication.
It didn’t seem unreasonable, so I thought.
There are about 20 medication reminder apps in App Store but although many had an iPad equivalent app there are only 5 that mention Apple Watch apps and none have an actual complication to display on a watch face.
The best of the 5 was $69.50/year. The next nearest $36.00/year. Both require subscription to use iOS alarms, the most expensive has only a “shaking pill box” sound, almost inaudible even on full volume with my phone in my pocket.
In all I tried 6 apps. Some are like social media apps, one hadn't been updated since 2017, another had no audible alarm at all, just banners.
It's not that I'm disappointed, well a little, mostly I'm surprised.
I mean so many people take regular meds I just thought there would be a free, basic reminder app or maybe a once only payment for one with an Apple Watch complication.
In the end I opted for the free native Reminders app. It's not ideal. I have to make seperate alarms for each instance, no 8hrly or 12hrly repeats. However as a consolation for the modest total of $1.50 I have purchased a unique, very audible C-3PO (Star Wars) ring tone so it's not all bad.

 

[IWT]

Yes, Rod, it is extraordinary that so few simple apps are around given that millions of people are on medications; often multiple and at differing times in the day. I haven't researched this myself, but you have and it's disappointing.

Again, I should have thought that one could just set up an alarm at 4, 6, 8 or 12 hour intervals. Wouldn't take up much software effort to make that happen with Apple's own Alarm function.

However, at least it's one medication twice a day, every day, which shouldn't stress the memory of a young fellow like you.

Ian

 

[ferrarr]

I use the Reminders app. I have many different Lists. One for Reordering, another for Prescriptions. And others for the mundane tasks I try not to think about.

The custom schedule helps.

 

[chscag]

Hey Bob:

When you set those reminders on your Mac, does that also appear at the proper time on your iPhone? Okay, I see that it's an option to set with iCloud. But does it work right?

 

[MacInWin]

One other thought is that the repeat can be set to be every day at a time, so set 3 or 4 or however many it takes to have a reminder at the same time each day. So if you wanted every 4 hours, starting at 8 am, set a daily reminder for 8 am, repeating endlessly every day, then another for noon, same repeat, then 4 pm, 8 pm and midnight, all repeating daily at the same hour.

 

[Rod]

Hey Bob:

When you set those reminders on your Mac, does that also appear at the proper time on your iPhone? Okay, I see that it's an option to set with iCloud. But does it work right?

I'll try a couple of examples today and see what happens. I have only set them on my iPhone in the past, I'll try setting a couple on the MBP an see what happens.

 

[chscag]

Thanks Rod. Let us know.

 

[Rod]

One other thought is that the repeat can be set to be every day at a time, so set 3 or 4 or however many it takes to have a reminder at the same time each day. So if you wanted every 4 hours, starting at 8 am, set a daily reminder for 8 am, repeating endlessly every day, then another for noon, same repeat, then 4 pm, 8 pm and midnight, all repeating daily at the same hour.

Jake, that is what I do but a pill reminder app should be able to make the calculations for you. Say I need to take 100mg of a medication 3 times daily. Most reasonable apps will allow you to enter the Medication by name, the presentation (how many mg in each tablet), the dose and the frequency. So if I need to take 100mg of Elequis 200mg three times daily it should be able to create three reminders for half a tablet 8hrs apart. Also I should be able to enter my stock, eg 100 tablets, a minimum number of tablets before re ordering and have it remind me when I reach that number. Most of the apps I looked at were able to do some or all of the above albeit with difficulty. It would also be reasonable to expect that if any of the conditions changed like the presentation eg the chemist only had 100mg tablets next month then changing that should change the dosage for all times from 1/2 a tablet to 1 tablet.
Obviously this is easy for me but some people have 5 or 10 daily meds to take so it can get very complicated and can cause serious repercussions when meds are missed or taken in the wrong doses or at the wrong times.
For this reason the app also needs to be able to sync via iCloud so that records aren't lost if you phone is.
So again, I'm surprised there isn't more choice or that the ones that do all of the above are so expensive, the best of them being $63.00/year and they store all of you data on their servers. All for your convenience and safety of course but I'm not happy sharing my medication and medical history with anyone other than my doctor and chemist, "big pharma" know way too much about us already.

 

[Rod]

Just another little annoyance but it goes back a long way. This morning I was waiting to hear the tone for my reminder but when it went off the phone only vibrated. I realised the volume was turned down to zero from last night. Sometimes when I'm receiving a lot of messages or email notifications while we're watching TV my wife asks me to turn down the phone which of course I do. Obviously I had not turned it back up.
This brings me to my complaint. Last time I checked an Android phone there were at least 3 maybe 4 seperate volume controls. Ring tone, Music, Alerts/alarms and Games. I found this a little daunting at first but once I had them all set it was pretty easy. It meant I seldom missed a call or an alert because I could leave them at maximum volume. It's always been a bit of a shortfall with the iPhone I thought.

 

[Slydude]

I hadn't thought of that since I don't have much experience with Android phones but there are times I would love that feature. I usually have my phone on vibrate with the sound turned off so I don't disturb class . I sometimes miss alerts about calls/texts if I don't have the phone on my arm or because I forgot to turn the ringer back on at the end of the day.

I'd love to have a bit more control over how/when the phone rings. Reminders is "location aware" and I'd like that feature on rings/notices (i.e. silence the ring/alerts in church, school, etc and turn it back on in other places).

 

[pm-r]

So, I thought there must be an iPhone app that would remind me to take my meds, keep a record of names, dosage and give reorder reminders.
I also wanted an app that had an Apple Watch app, a proper complication.

For what it's worth, I use Calendar 366+ that has an easy to use repeat option and a short area for notes if you need them.
I used to use Fantastical but it got too fancy and too expensive as well as a later OS version I did not want to go to.

I don't know if it uses Apple watch app or not:
Calendar 366

Calendar 366 by n.spektor - For Mac, iPhone, Apple Watch & iPad

Calendar 366 II - The most complete menu bar calendar for macOS & Calendar 366 for iPhone, Apple Watch & iPad - The calendar app for all your plans!

nspektor.com

Probably a bit too minimal for what you are wanting.


- Patrick
=======

 

[Rod]

It actually looks pretty good Patrick. I’m still using Fantastical but thinking about dropping my subscription.
No it won’t do what I would like a Pill Reminder app to do but it seems I’m expecting a bit much at the moment.

 

[ferrarr]

Hey Bob:

When you set those reminders on your Mac, does that also appear at the proper time on your iPhone? Okay, I see that it's an option to set with iCloud. But does it work right?

Yes, they sync through iCloud, as long as it is enabled on each device, and go off on each device as well. It works well for my needs.

Since I've been using Reminders, I have over 26,000 completed.

I have noticed, that sometimes they don't always sync consistently, across the devices, but I have about 20 Reminders a day.

 

[pm-r]

No it won’t do what I would like a Pill Reminder app to do but it seems I’m expecting a bit much at the moment.

How about Medisafe’s medication reminder app that seems to have some decent comments and reviews???

Home - MedisafeApp

Spend Less Time Thinking About Medications – and More Time Living The fastest, most secure and accurate way to track all of your meds and measurements. 256-BIT Encryption | ISO 27001 Certified HIPAA & GDPR Compliant

www.medisafeapp.com

https://get.medisafe.com/download/

It's for iOS use only it looks like If that matters.

I don't know how free it's "Free" cost is.


- Patrick
=======

 

[Rod]

Thanks a lot for your ongoing interest in this topic Patrick. The app you mention, Medisafe, is without doubt the best of all the ones I looked at and the one I referred to in my post #8 as being AU$63.00/year. Yes, you can use most of the more important functions for free BUT, here they do a rather annoying and I think underhand thing. With the paid subscription you get a full range of amusing audible alarms as well as the option to use iOS alarm/ring tones but with the free version you can only have their default which is a "rattling pill box" so soft and quiet as to be inaudible in all but the most quiet of situations. It's such an obvious ploy to make you pay that i rejected it out of hand but now in retrospect it occurs to me I could have both: Use the Reminders app to play an audible alarm and the Medisafe app for everything else.

 

[pm-r]

The app you mention, Medisafe, is without doubt the best of all the ones I looked at and the one I referred to in my post #8 as being AU$63.00/year.

So much for their "Free" bit of BS... I hate it when that happens and I would be rather inclined to send them a rather testy note to that effect and let them know.

We need the HyperCard.app back and then you could just make your own small app to work exactly the way you want. But maybe AppleScript could get close...??? Just a thought... ;-)


- Patrick
=======

 

[pm-r]

We need the HyperCard.app back and then you could just make your own small app to work exactly the way you want. But maybe AppleScript could get close...??? Just a thought... ;-)

I think I may take a closer look at some of these:

Mac fans' eyes mist over: Someone's re-created HyperCard

ViperCard takes a bite out of old-style programming

www.theregister.com

HyperCard Alternatives and Similar Software | AlternativeTo

The best HyperCard alternatives are Delphi, LiveCode and My Visual Database. Our crowd-sourced lists contains six apps similar to HyperCard for Windows, Mac, Linux, Online / Web-based and more.

alternativeto.net

Google Search

- Patrick
=======