By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
  • Health
    • Mental Health
    Health
    Healthcare organizations are operating on slimmer profit margins than ever. One report in August showed that they are even lower than the beginning of the…
    Show More
    Top News
    medicare part d benefits
    Everything that You Need to Know About Medicare Part D
    August 15, 2022
    Best Ways to Boost Your Immune System this Winter
    Best Ways to Boost Your Immune System this Winter
    November 15, 2022
    back pain issues
    Ways to Treat Constant Back Pain
    August 21, 2023
    Latest News
    How Probate Planning Shapes the Future of Your Estate and Family Care
    July 17, 2025
    Beyond Nutrition: Everyday Foods That Support Whole-Body Health
    June 15, 2025
    The Wide-Ranging Benefits of Magnesium Supplements
    June 11, 2025
    The Best Home Remedies for Migraines
    June 5, 2025
  • Policy and Law
    • Global Healthcare
    • Medical Ethics
    Policy and Law
    Get the latest updates about Insurance policies and Laws in the Healthcare industry for different geographical locations.
    Show More
    Top News
    More On Wellness Programs To Improve Health and Reduce Costs
    January 25, 2012
    Privatizing Social Security and Medicare: Who Can Defuse Political Dynamite?
    June 12, 2011
    Study: Risk of Death in Elderly Patients with Dementia Doubled with Some Antipsychotic Medications
    February 26, 2012
    Latest News
    How IT and Marketing Teams Can Collaborate to Protect Patient Trust
    July 17, 2025
    How Health Choices and Legal Actions Intersect After an Injury
    July 17, 2025
    How communities and healthcare providers can address slip and fall injuries with legal awareness
    July 17, 2025
    Let Your Lawyer Handle the Work Before You Pay Medical Costs
    July 6, 2025
  • Medical Innovations
  • News
  • Wellness
  • Tech
Search
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Reading: Fending off Forgetting: Pillboxie
Share
Notification Show More
Font ResizerAa
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
Font ResizerAa
Search
Follow US
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Health Works Collective > eHealth > Mobile Health > Fending off Forgetting: Pillboxie
Mobile Health

Fending off Forgetting: Pillboxie

Rhona Finkel
Rhona Finkel
Share
8 Min Read
SHARE

Managing medications is a difficult endeavor.

I’ve come up with this brilliant little solution: When I wake up and take my morning meds, I then throw them, so I’ll know I’ve taken them. I throw the ones I won’t need again into my pill basket (or I try to, I’ll never make it as a quarterback), and throw the one I need to take again into the middle of the room because (there’s a method to my madness) that way, I convince myself, I’ll see it when I return to my room, and remember to take it at 12:00.

Managing medications is a difficult endeavor.

I’ve come up with this brilliant little solution: When I wake up and take my morning meds, I then throw them, so I’ll know I’ve taken them. I throw the ones I won’t need again into my pill basket (or I try to, I’ll never make it as a quarterback), and throw the one I need to take again into the middle of the room because (there’s a method to my madness) that way, I convince myself, I’ll see it when I return to my room, and remember to take it at 12:00.

More Read

Patient Record on Parking
The Case for Patient Video in Doctors Visits: Take a Selfie and Call Me In the Morning
How to Engage Patients Through Data, Technology and Communication
FDA Issues Final Guidance on Wireless Medical Devices
Mobile Health Around the Globe: Operation Smile India Launches mHealth Application in Assam
Millennials & Gen Xers: Get Your Parents on Social Media—Their Health Depends On It

But therein lies the rub. Because I’m busy doing other things, I fail to return to my room, where the pills are innocently lying on my floor, waiting to be loved. Another medication moment down the drain. And I am very far from alone.

Almost half of Americans take at least one prescription drug every day; 1 in 6 take three or more daily.

For those with chronic illnesses, the numbers increase exponentially. Patients with bipolar disorder need what’s now called a “med cocktail,” and it’s not uncommon for them to be on 4 or more medications.  The average diabetic takes 9 pills daily.  One person with fibromyalgia reported taking 55 pills a day.

If you throw in vitamins and supplements and figure that the medications need to be taken at different times during the day, you’ve got a lot on your plate.

Thus it’s no surprise that rates of forgetting to take medications are shockingly high. The Wall Street Journal Online/Harris Interactive poll reported that two-thirds of adults surveyed said they forgot to take their medication.

With rates of forgetting like these, patients have unnecessary suffering, and it costs the healthcare system money as they need to be ‘patched up,’ at the doctor’s, or, all too often, in the hospital.

But, as the mantra has become: There’s an app for that.

Actually there are several, but one of the newer and more elegant ones is an iPhone app called Pillboxie.

Pillboxie is unique in med-reminding apps in that it uses visuals of your medications, instead of just the standard name and dosage, and a visual image of an actual pillbox. In that way it becomes the graphic equivalent of a pillbox on the screen–just with bells and whistles.

Setting up the application is simple, accessible to even those with the most basic of iPhone skills. The user selects a picture of her medications, and then manually maneuvers them into the ‘pillbox’ that is marked with the times at which the meds should be taken.

The single most burdensome part, especially if you have a heavy medication load, is the one-time entering of each medication to set up the system. The user enters the medication by typing in the name, choosing a shape and color, filling in the reason she takes the med and instructions, and then, the most important piece, establishing the schedule. Oddly, dosage is not required when entering this information, which would be some really useful information to have.

Once the meds have been established, you schedule your reminders by ‘dropping the pill in the pillbox’ for the requisite time.

There are some truly well-thought out features on Pillboxie.

In a clever maneuver, reminder alerts will pop up on the phone even if it’s asleep–a crucial feature. Additionally, the app supports multiple users, so a mother, say, could set up her medication regime on the same app as her husband’s, children’s, and older mother’s. It’s quite convenient. Also, each day you can see a master list of sorts of the meds on your ‘to do list’ for today, and you can check them off on the app as you go. At $.99 cents it seems  a real find.

Just in the interest of full disclosure, however, a review piece by a doctor, entitled, not surprisingly “Physician review of Pillboxie, a medication reminder app for patients,” makes an excellent point about what the app lacks–and it’s a serious oversight.

You can’t print your medication list, or e-mail it. Given one of the best aspects of mHealth is the communication between physician and patient, the inability for the doctor to access this information is less than ideal. [RxmindMe Prescription allows you to e-mail a spreadsheet of your meds to your doctor, in case this issue is a deal-breaker for you.] Additionally, you can only set up reminders on the hour, so if you’d like an 11:45 reminder for a 12:00 pill, you’re simply out of luck.

Another small point: There’s no way to indicate a limited time frame for a medicine. If you’re put on an antibiotic, say, for 10 days, you have to enter your tetracycline as you would any ongoing medication–and then erase it when the time is up.

To their credit, the developers are most responsive to input such as this. You can either e-mail them at pillboxie@gmail.com  or access them via Twitter, where you’ll see responses like, “Anything you’d like to see added?,” and (a personal favorite) “I’m working on a complete redesign of the history page for a future release. At the moment it sucks, I know. :) “

Despite these criticisms, compared to hurling medicines across the room in an effort to track them, Pillboxie offers a med-management world of elegance and grace.

Filed under: Communication, Social Media Tagged: app for medication, medication reminders, Pillboxie

TAGGED:mobile apppharmaPillboxie
Share This Article
Facebook Copy Link Print
Share

Stay Connected

1.5kFollowersLike
4.5kFollowersFollow
2.8kFollowersPin
136kSubscribersSubscribe

Latest News

Grounded Healing: A Natural Ally for Sustainable Healthcare Systems
How IT and Marketing Teams Can Collaborate to Protect Patient Trust
Global Healthcare Policy & Law
July 17, 2025
paramedics in surgical gloves and masks
How Health Choices and Legal Actions Intersect After an Injury
Health care
July 16, 2025
a woman giving a key
How Probate Planning Shapes the Future of Your Estate and Family Care
Health
July 16, 2025
a woman with kinesio tapes on her back arm
How communities and healthcare providers can address slip and fall injuries with legal awareness
Health care
July 16, 2025

You Might also Like

Interview with Paul Tunnah Founder of Pharmaphorum

April 20, 2014

Moving mHealth to the Next Frontier: Aligning Patients, Physicians, Healthcare Providers & Payers

June 10, 2012
Care On The Road: How Telemedicine Can Reach Truck Drivers
Mobile Health

Care On The Road: How Telemedicine Can Reach Truck Drivers

August 21, 2017

Is a Daily Dose of Many Pills in Your Future?

September 11, 2013
Subscribe
Subscribe to our newsletter to get our newest articles instantly!
Follow US
© 2008-2025 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Username or Email Address
Password

Lost your password?