How You Can Help Friends and Family Manage their Meds

Remembering to take medications goes way beyond remembering to take a pill in the morning and one before bed. We’ve got charts on the fridge or spreadsheets or notebooks to tick off which medications get taken when — and which ones they’ve actually taken. You don’t want anyone to accidentally take their medications twice.
There’s got to be a better way, right? Well, there is. It’s Medisafe, a medication reminder app.
If your loved one struggles in managing their medications — with a little help — this could be the perfect tool for you.

How does Medisafe work?

Patients download the app and can connect with their caregivers, whether it’s a family member, a friend, or someone on their treatment team. They get notifications when it’s time to take their medication. If they mark that they’ve taken it, they’re all set. If they ignore the notification, their family member gets a notification and can check in with them.
There’s no need to type in medication information. You can get your medication information straight from your clinic  by connecting to your patient portal. If your clinic isn’t on the list yet, , it’s easy to add things manually. Naturally, Medisafe is 100% HIPAA compliant.
Medisafe works with caregivers, by letting us know when a dose has been skipped or taken improperly. It also:

• provides helpful reminders on when it’s time to order a refill
• keeps track of doctors appointments
• monitors health stats, like glucose levels
• provides personalized information
• share, email, or print records for your family or doctor

Medisafe also provides you with instructions on how to take medications, potential side effects, safety information, and other helpful things to know about the medications your loved one is taking.
Medisafe also keeps track of medications you take as needed, like Tylenol. Because certain medications might also contain Acetaminophen, it’s easy to accidentally overdose. Medisafe will help you keep track of these meds..

Know what’s working — or not

The simple charts in the app make it easy for people to see their glucose levels stabilize or their blood pressure fall within the normal range — making them more likely to continue taking their medications, because they can see them working. You can import information from wearable devices or pull it in from Apple’s Health App or Google Fit.

Protecting you from medication costs

As medication costs rise, many patients find themselves skipping doses because they can’t afford to take medications as prescribed. That’s why Medisafe is partnering with GoodRx to help you find the lowest prescription prices.

Better adherence, better outcome

All of this makes a real difference. Medisafe users are more likely to take their medications correctly. The groups of patients studied were managing cholesterol, hypertension, and diabetes. Their latest study with IMS Health has shown that 40% of people who weren’t taking their medications correctly started taking them correctly once they had a caregiver connected to Medisafe. Over 70% of users were better at taking their medication after they started using Medisafe with a caregiver.
Taking medications correctly helps people prevent serious health complications — like heart attack, stroke, and kidney disease — leading to a better quality of life for patients and their caregivers. Every year 125,000 people die from not taking their medication as prescribed.

Of course, Medisafe isn’t for everyone. The person you’re caring for needs to be comfortable using a smartphone and able to reliably report what medications they’ve taken. If that doesn’t describe the person you’re helping, there are plenty of other medication management tools out there to help.
Medisafe is available on iOS and Android.
Do you have a story about your experience with Medisafe as a caregiver? Share your experience and your story could be shared with the Medisafe community.
This post was originally posted on The Caregiver Space blog by Cori Carl.