Your Facebook News Feed is customized based on your interests and the sharing activity of your friends. There’s an app for personalized recommendations of what to wear based on your clothes and the weather forecast. Shouldn’t there be customized information for your health?
Your Facebook News Feed is customized based on your interests and the sharing activity of your friends. There’s an app for personalized recommendations of what to wear based on your clothes and the weather forecast. Shouldn’t there be customized information for your health?
The answer is absolutely, and there is. The cloud-synced medication reminder platform, MediSafe, now offers the first-ever, personalized contextual feed for mobile phones. It’s similar to how Google Now offers relevant information at the best time, except MediSafe’s feed is for people who take a plethora of medications at specific times.
So say, instead of a meeting reminder, weather update, or things to do in your area, you’ll see contextualized items, such as a prompt to pop your meds and a health tip specific to you from leading online health publications. With just a tap of a button labeled, “The FEED,” you can browse health information revolving around your condition and medications.
“Developing a technological daily health companion to help in managing one’s health is a clear way to address the major challenges of medication management, such as forgetfulness, low engagement, and even cost,” said MediSafe CEO Omri Shor. “Helping people manage their medications safely is not only important for continuing health, but it can be life-saving.”
Adhering to medications is crucial, both according to Shor and research. Up to 23 percent of nursing admissions may be due to an elderly person’s inability to self-manage prescription medications at home. And more than 21 percent of all drug-related health complications are caused by patients failing to adhere to their medication regimens. Even worse, 58 percent of all seniors make some kind of error when taking their medications, with 26 percent making mistakes with potentially serious consequences.
However, it’s about more than properly taking medications. That’s why the Feed provides content to help you better understand your medications and their implications. It also puts you back in control of your health and makes it more engaging with access to informative health content, self-measurements, and social support.
If you’re taking medication for diabetes, for example, you’ll see Feed items such as an informational video about your condition. You can find information about your medication and how it helps manage your condition. There are also tips on leading a healthy lifestyle with diabetes and a new discount card when you receive a reminder to fill your prescription.
Other contextualized items include being able to insert your vitals into the platform to keep, track, and share additional information with your physician, which integrates with Apple HealthKit. Besides reminders to take meds and pickup prescription refills, a summary of your daily and weekly medication intake is provided. If you need extra support, the “Med-Friends” feature notifies a friend or family member to make sure you’re taking important medicines on time.
Since the MediSafe platform launched in November 2012, it has been downloaded for free in Google Play and the iTunes App Store more than a million times, reminding users to take pills promptly 86 percent of the time. That’s 36 percent higher than both the Centers for Disease Control and World Health Organization’s estimated average medication adherence rate of 50 percent.
In the way Facebook and other apps use advanced algorithms to give a customized feed or recommendation for every user, the MediSafe Feed presents a one-of-a-kind library and daily tips and information. Seems mHealth is the solution for better health engagement and more.