Looking for a pill tracker app for ios to track times meds were taken
March 7, 2019 5:05 PM Subscribe
I am looking for an app for iphone that will allow me to track when I take pills. Not just *that* I took them, but at what time, so I can look back and say "I see, it has been six hours since I took an [x med]". And so I can track how many of the as-needed medications I take on any given day.
Ideally, I would just be able to tap on each med right after I take it, and the app would keep track of the times. I already have a reminder for my afternoon medications, so I am covered there, but I'd be interested in trying reminders from a pill tracking app as well. Sometimes I take my afternoon pills late, so I'd like to keep track of that too.
Overall goal: keep track of how many of a certain med I end up needing per day. I am terrible at keeping track of this. Sometimes it's 4 or less, I think, but on bad days it might be 5? I want to straighten it out so I get an idea of whether I might need an rx with more per day. I'd like to stay ahead of the game so that I don't end up running out.
I am willing to pay up to maybe $5 for an app. If there's something awesome that meets my criteria, I might be willing to go a bit higher.
Ideally, I would just be able to tap on each med right after I take it, and the app would keep track of the times. I already have a reminder for my afternoon medications, so I am covered there, but I'd be interested in trying reminders from a pill tracking app as well. Sometimes I take my afternoon pills late, so I'd like to keep track of that too.
Overall goal: keep track of how many of a certain med I end up needing per day. I am terrible at keeping track of this. Sometimes it's 4 or less, I think, but on bad days it might be 5? I want to straighten it out so I get an idea of whether I might need an rx with more per day. I'd like to stay ahead of the game so that I don't end up running out.
I am willing to pay up to maybe $5 for an app. If there's something awesome that meets my criteria, I might be willing to go a bit higher.
I use the MediSafe app. I use it for reminders. When it pops up, I can either say that I took it right then, or leave it for later. It will remind me three times every 10 minutes. When I tap that I took it outside those 30 minutes, I can say "now" or "on time" and it tracks the exact time. I can look at a report by day or by medication to see exactly when I marked it as taken - down to the minute. I really like it.
posted by gemmy at 5:31 PM on March 7, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by gemmy at 5:31 PM on March 7, 2019 [1 favorite]
Round is super easy, has reminder windows, tracks both when you last took meds AND keeps a log with times of meds you took. You can just scroll through the log of the day. It also has refill reminders. I use it everyday. You can export the data to CSV tables so you can sort by date and total up meds for a month.
posted by Crystalinne at 5:32 PM on March 7, 2019
posted by Crystalinne at 5:32 PM on March 7, 2019
I know you said you were looking for an app, but if you wanted something more tangible I love the TimerCap pill bottles. It has a stopwatch built into the cap that resets each time you open the bottle. It wont count how many times you've opened it though, which probably be useful to you as well.
posted by cgg at 5:59 PM on March 7, 2019
posted by cgg at 5:59 PM on March 7, 2019
Also a fan of Round (and I love that it can be flexible about days: I have a med I take twice a week.)
It also handles "I don't normally take this, but do sometimes" very easily (rescue inhaler, ibuprofen, etc.)
posted by jenettsilver at 6:10 PM on March 7, 2019
It also handles "I don't normally take this, but do sometimes" very easily (rescue inhaler, ibuprofen, etc.)
posted by jenettsilver at 6:10 PM on March 7, 2019
I started using Medisafe in 2014 and have been happy with it, though i have seen a few glitches in how it deals with changing time zones and scheduled meds. For the most part it is fine and is actively maintained by the developer with bugfixes, etc.
Besides being able to set up a scheduled med, you can also have entries for things (like aspirin) that you’ve marked in the app as “Take as needed” and record that you took them and when. You go to the “Med Cabinet” pane, swipe left on the medication, choose “add dose”. The dialog box that comes up will let you leave the time as “Now” or you can tap on it to manually enter the time. It will also let you set the quantity you took, if needed. After you’ve hit “Save” you will see it listed in the chronological “Report” log. I think you can also add extra doses this way to meds that you also take on a schedule, as well.
Note that while the app allows you to create an account for their online storage of your data, you don’t have to do this.
posted by D.C. at 2:43 PM on March 8, 2019
Besides being able to set up a scheduled med, you can also have entries for things (like aspirin) that you’ve marked in the app as “Take as needed” and record that you took them and when. You go to the “Med Cabinet” pane, swipe left on the medication, choose “add dose”. The dialog box that comes up will let you leave the time as “Now” or you can tap on it to manually enter the time. It will also let you set the quantity you took, if needed. After you’ve hit “Save” you will see it listed in the chronological “Report” log. I think you can also add extra doses this way to meds that you also take on a schedule, as well.
Note that while the app allows you to create an account for their online storage of your data, you don’t have to do this.
posted by D.C. at 2:43 PM on March 8, 2019
Response by poster: Thank you for these great ideas, everyone! I'm trying out Round right now, and I like it a lot so far. I will also try out Medisafe and see which one I like better. I'm already so pleased that I can track things better, it's going to help me quite a bit.
posted by cats are weird at 5:00 PM on March 8, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by cats are weird at 5:00 PM on March 8, 2019 [1 favorite]
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posted by reductiondesign at 5:13 PM on March 7, 2019