On-hands Insights for Building a Medication Reminder & Tracker App

As much as 50% of patients worldwide don’t take their medications as prescribed — leading to worsened patient outcomes and preventable complications. However alarming these statistics may be, they can get better with a medication reminder app.

How come? With such an app, you allow both patients to manage their health effectively and healthcare providers to increase adherence, simplify medication management, and get insights for improved care delivery.

In this article, Exoft, a healthcare software development services provider, will explain everything you need to know to develop a medication tracker app, including must-have features, compliance requirements, and the right tech stack.

Highlights:

• Key features to include in your medication reminder app — dose reminders, scheduling, medication history, notes, and prescription renewal alerts.
• Keep compliance under control by following HIPAA, GDPR, and FDA regulations.
• Any gaps and challenges to be aware of? Consider interoperability, integration with existing systems, and data security.

The Scope of Features to Choose

Before you create a pill reminder app, you need to consider the features it will include. Here are the must-haves and additional functionalities to choose from:

Core Features

The critical features you should incorporate when handling pill reminder app development are as follows:

• Dose reminders. Send timely notifications to patients to take their medications as prescribed.
• Medication scheduling. Allow users to create and manage daily, weekly, monthly, or custom medication schedules, including refill reminders and dosage adjustments.
• Medication history. Enable users to review their medication intake over time.
• Prescription renewal alerts. Notify users when it’s time to renew their prescriptions.
• Notes field. Enable users to add notes about their medications, including instructions or side effects.

Additional Features

To move medication management app development even further, you may want to include the following advanced features:

• Voice-activated reminders. Use voice commands to set up and receive medication reminders.
• Family notifications. Allow users to share their medication schedules with family members or caregivers to ensure greater medication adherence.
• Drug interaction warnings. Alert users about potential interactions between their medications.

Types of Medication Reminder and Tracker Apps

There are three main types of medication reminder apps. Let’s explore each and look at real-world examples of healthcare mobile apps.

Tech Stack & Compliance Requirements

Now that you know the features to incorporate in pill tracker app solutions, let’s look at the technical and compliance requirements. Here’s what you’ll have to deal with:

Advanced Technologies to Consider

For your med schedule app to be innovative, you may want to adopt any of the following technologies:

• Artificial intelligence to personalize medication reminders
• Robotic process automation to automate repetitive tasks
• Natural language processing to enable voice-activated features
• Computer vision to recognize medication images
• Cloud computing to store and manage health data safely
• Internet of Things to connect with wearable devices and smart pill dispensers

Compliance Requirements to Follow

Your medication reminder app solutions should strictly follow certain regulations, including:

• HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act). HIPAA-compliant platform development involves adhering to strict privacy and security rules for handling patient health information (PHI).
• GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation). This law protects user data for apps operating in the European Union.
• FDA (Food and Drug Administration). Depending on your app’s features (for example, providing medical advice), it may be subject to FDA regulations.
• ISO 27001. This is an international standard for information security management.

Tech Stack to Use

Speaking of the specific programming languages, frameworks, and so on, you can use any of the following:

Market Gaps You Can Brake

Medication reminders and pharmacy app development are highly promising. However, you may stumble upon some challenges during the process. Let’s look at the most common obstacles and how you can overcome them:

Integration with Existing Health Systems

Once you’ve handled medication management app development, you may struggle to integrate your application with existing systems. Yet, you can solve this issue by using standardized APIs and frameworks.

Data Security and Privacy

In medication reminder app development, sensitive patient data is at stake. Failing to ensure strong security can result in data breaches. To tackle that, implement end-to-end encryption, role-based access control, secure authentication protocols, and follow relevant regulations in your region.

Interoperability Issues

Integrating your medication reminder app with existing systems is one thing. Making sure these systems exchange data easily is another. To ensure smooth communication, build a medication-tracking app that is compatible with widely used standards.

Conclusion

Making an app for taking medications requires several considerations. Those include must-have features like dose reminders, scheduling, and medication history, along with add-ons like voice-activated reminders and drug interaction alerts. Plus, the success of pill tracker app development largely depends on the technologies you choose and, of course, regulatory compliance.

In case you want to build an app for medication reminders, contact Exoft. With over 10 years of experience in healthcare app development, we can consult you on the best solution.