A Guide To Medication Tracking Software

Are you being inconsistent in taking medication? If so, then it can disrupt your overall health and progress Introduction which results in heavy costs to healthcare providers as well as the clients. For people with chronic conditions, taking your meds as prescribed can even mean life beyond an early grave or not. Patients can easily solve this problem with the help of an app that keeps track of their medications. Yes, a medication tracking app.

As a healthcare software development company, we bring you this article to talk about the types of medication tracking software, its features and processes in this article.

1. What is Medication Tracking Software?

Medication tracking software is a digital tool for managing and tracking all aspects of medication intake. Medication tracking software helps individuals to record their drug prescriptions, pill dosages, and administration frequencies. It assists in medication records that are stored on the Medication Administration Records (MAR) and Electronic Medical Record (EMR). This will ensure the patient receives top standard management, improve patient safety, and less medication errors.

Asset Mapping is another key part of medication monitoring. This includes everything that ever ends up in a healthcare institution, like an inventory with all the pharmaceuticals and other hospital supplies. This data is then saved in an asset management database. And, it can be opened in numerous ways such as through RFID technology or with a barcode scanner. Healthcare organizations could also use asset mapping for medication tracking to ensure the right drugs are always within reach. However, using this strategy reduces medication errors and increases the level of patient safety. Inventory management is also an area where asset mapping might help healthcare organizations. This can translate into cost savings and less waste.

As per Bcc Research, the Global market for medical systems and technologies is predicted to increase from $3.5 billion in 2020 to $6.0 billion by 2025 at a compound annual growth rate of 11.4% in 2020-2025.

2. Types of Medication Tracking Software

Medication tracking software comes in two different types, each made for a different group of users and their unique needs.

2.1 Pill Intake Reminder & Control App

• Where does pill reminder software come in handy?

Outpatients, especially older people, people with mental illness, or people who need to take a lot of medicines, can find it hard to keep track of their routines. This software can help both patients and their caretakers keep better track of the pills they take.

• How does pill reminder software function?

Medication tracking software makes it easier to keep track of how many pills you take. Setting up a synchronous medication plan to remind both an outpatient and a caretaker to take their medicine at the same time. A patient can also easily enter information about their medications into a system.

Before taking a pill, scan the QR code on the box. The apps that track medications can then let both the patient and their caretaker know when their medicines are about to expire or need to be updated.

Inside the pill intake app, you can find a number of extra options. Like blocks with details about medicines, tracking activities, live videoconferencing, and so on.

• What are the pros of using this app?

Healthcare providers, like hospitals, clinics, assisted living centers, and more, will be able to get greater profits from their customers. If they use pill intake methods to get patients more involved and keep them coming back.

Including the ability to keep track of medications in current or future healthcare software is a surefire way to increase sales. If this is something new, maybe more people will use it.

• What reasons make pill intake software work so well?

Before releasing a pill reminder app, you should do market research to find out what features are needed, how users want to interact with the app, and how the interface should look. This will make it more likely that people will like the app. Beta testing can also help you find and fix small bugs in an app before you make it available to everyone. Because the app is still being worked on after it’s launched, getting feedback from users on a daily basis is important for making it better and keeping users coming back.

2.2 Drug Inventory Tracking Software

• Where does drug inventory tracking software come in handy?

Drug inventory management systems help to better control both medication supply and usage. Drug inventory tracking systems supply complete asset data. This covers details such as medicine specification, location, expiration period, patient, doctor or nurse association, planned prescription count, and more.

• How does drug inventory tracking software function?

Drug inventory systems allow centralized and paperless pharmaceutical inventory life cycle management by using RFID tags with different serial numbers for every item in inventory and barcodes. Automatically monitoring the medicine supply level, a medication inventory tracking system can send a supply-level reminder, track medicine delivery, and offer a special count for regulated pharmaceuticals by means of electronic medication administration record (EMAR) software.

• What are the pros of using this app?

Drug inventory management helps businesses in the healthcare sector cut costs and stop drug waste by means of medications. Companies that create healthcare software have a higher chance of thriving in the market by producing solutions that efficiently track medicine inventory.

• What reasons make drug inventory tracking software work so well?

The medicine monitoring software should be RFID-enabled to enhance its value as it will enable data collection in real-time when drugs are being tracked. Clients of a healthcare software product firm, on the other hand, could be cautious to apply this tool considering the higher running expenses associated with RFID integration.

The kind of RFID tag being used passive or active allows several strategies to maximize related costs and reduce such dangers. Usually more affordable are passive RFID tag systems as the tags do not depend on an internal power source. Systems using active RFID tags are even more expensive than battery-powered tags. Still, these technologies provide a greater RFID reading range. Thus, it is essential to specify, on a personal level, the feasibility of any RFID-type application.

3. How does Medication Tracking Software Work?

The main goal of medical tracking software is to help people stick to their drug schedules. A patient can use any kind of technology, like a smartphone, to get to these tracking systems. With medicine tracking software, you can also add a picture of your drug to your phone along with information about how much to take and how to use it.

Quality tracking software has a built-in tool that checks for drug reactions. With this tool, doctors can be notified. The time when a new medicine is likely to combine badly with a current prescription plan. Users can also report issues on the app, which will let doctors know if a patient has a bad reaction to any of their medicines.

Medical tracking software helps patients remember how much of a drug to take and when to take it. Some more advanced apps also let you see things, like pictures and the dose, which helps people remember to take their medicines exactly as their doctors tell them to.

4. Features of Medication Tracking Software

To make the most efficient and cost-effective system, it’s important to know what features should be in a hospital drug monitoring system.

Here is a list of the most important features of tools for keeping track of medications. That will change the way patients are served and make any healthcare center run more smoothly.

4.1 Medication Schedule

This drug-tracking software lets you plan how much medicine you’ll take and keep track of your progress. Its main feature is a full list of all the drugs available, including their names, what they look like, how much to take, how to take it, and when to take it.

4.2 A Medication Reminder

The next most important thing that any medicine tracker should have is the ability to send alerts based on when the doses are due. People can use this feature to remember when to take their medicine and make sure they don’t miss a dose.

Not only can daily medicine reminders help the user keep track of when and how much medication they take, they can also let them know when their supply is running low. People will be less likely to forget to take their medicine or run out of it.

4.3 Interaction Checker

As part of their treatment, patients may need to make sure that all of their medicines can be taken together without any problems. You should make sure that these medicines don’t stop working and that they don’t hurt the person taking them- in case, they are allergic to any component.

In interaction checkers, you can find the most up-to-date information about medicines and their components. Users can also be told by these tools if they need to see a doctor before taking the medicine.

4.4 Medical Data Sharing

Any treatment process that is supervised by a doctor usually takes a lot of time and effort from both the patient and the person caring for them.

The medication tracking system, on the other hand, makes this easy to fix by immediately telling your doctor about your vital signs and medicine use.

Medical units can save time and effort by not having to do documentation, holding patients up to date on their treatment and health in real-time, and letting nurses give patients feedback right away.

4.5 Chat With Caregivers

After a significant increase in Q2 of 2020, telehealth usage has now leveled out at levels 38 times greater than pre-pandemic levels, according to data by McKinsey & Company in 2021.

Medication monitoring systems help medical establishments move even farther toward telemedicine acceptance. These solutions let users schedule online consultations and interact via the app with their doctors. Under this method, patients can easily access professional guidance and save time in the doctor’s office for typical activities like refilling medications or learning specifics about their treatment plan.

5. Benefits of Medication Tracking Software

Here are the main benefits of this healthcare option from the point of view of both healthcare professionals and customers. We hope this helps you see why the drug-tracking app is worth making and using.

5.1. Benefits for Doctors, Nurses, and Hospital Administration

The drug tracking system helps doctors, nurses, and the people in charge of the hospital in the following ways:

• Analyzing Vitals Data

A lot of drug tracking systems do more than just keep track of medications. They also keep an eye on things like blood pressure, weight loss, sugar levels, and more. For the most part, these extra features serve as an early warning system to find the first signs of a new illness, bad medication use, etc.

• Reducing the Number of Contradictory Prescriptions

Most software for keeping track of medications has thorough information about all drugs, both new and old, as well as any issues the user may have.

The method will let the patient know if their doctor orders a drug that could interact badly with another drug. Well, tracking takes away the chance that someone will make a mistake.

• An All-Inclusive and Transferable Database

Patients change their healthcare providers all the time for different reasons. They could move for work or family reasons, get a second view, or change jobs to get better health insurance.

It is helpful to have all of the medical and drug details in one place so that new doctors can see the big picture. This way of thinking helps them make the right decisions when giving new drugs.

5.2 Benefits for Patients and Their Families

Medication tracking apps not only help patients and doctors talk to each other better, but they also make sure that patients take their medicines as directed, which increases safety. Medication tracking apps can also save people time and money by cutting down on the number of trips they need to make to the pharmacy. Here are more benefits for patients and their families.

• Ease of Use

A medicine tracker is easy to use and good for people of all ages, even though it does an important job. It has a simple layout with few extra features, and the controls are simple and easy to understand.

People who keep track of their medications can use light-weight apps. They don’t need fast internet connections and don’t have a lot of space on their phones.

• Medication Reminders

When you’re busy, it’s important to have a piece of health advice. Medication trackers can remind you of things like daily doses, monthly refills, blood tests, and more.

• Integrations

With GPS, a medicine tracker can show users the closest pharmacy, emergency room, or lab that can do a certain test for the least amount of money. They can also connect to the hospital records system to get information about all of the patients’ treatments in one place.

6. Medication Tracking Software Development Process

Step 1: Define the Scope

Some call it the discovery phase, others call it defining the scope. It’s the first task that lays the foundation of a software development process; identifying the features that would fulfill the user requirements.

You must calculate the ROI for every feature you add to your application. However, it’s not possible to release everything all at once. So, the initial release always consists of the necessary features and functionalities that do the job. But to figure all that out, you have to define the scope of the project by considering the following:

• Use cases for making a medication-tracking app

The most common thing to consider is the user requirements. And the top use case we can think of for any medication app is reminding users to take their meds. 

Patients often forget to take their meds. So, they use a medical application that reminds them to take their medicines at regular predetermined intervals. There can be many more use cases such as setting an appointment with the doctors, storing patient history, admin management, and more.

Determine what are your app’s use cases. What do you want the users to use your medical app for?

• Knowing the technologies you need

Now, you have decided what you need your app to do. It’s time to identify technologies you would require to build those app functionalities. You also need to determine the platform, whether you are launching a web app or a mobile app. If it is a mobile app then is it for Android users or iOS users? Will it be an online or an offline application? Would it save data on the cloud or a local device?

Answering such questions would help you decide what technologies you might need to create your application. 

• Business plan

Once you know what your users want and how you can build it, it’s time to go to the drawing board start mapping out a project timeline, and plan the next stages of the development process. You also have to think of ways in which this healthcare application can benefit your business while it offers value to its users. Meticulous planning is necessary at this level as your entire project revolves around your business plan.

Step 2: Drafting Out the UI

• The Principles of User-Centered Design

Pill reminder and medicine tracking software that works well must be built with the user in mind. Make sure everything is clear, simple, and easy to understand. You can make small changes to the design of your app over time by trying it with users and using their feedback.

• Making a UI/UX that is Simple to Use

Make a UI that looks good and is easy to use by using simple structures and controls that explain things. Ensure that the color scheme and typeface are both available so that all users, especially those with disabilities, can easily read and understand the app’s text.

• Branding and Visual Identity

Make sure that the way your app looks and is branded is unique. One of these jobs is coming up with a name, icon, and color scheme that looks good and shows what your app is for.

Step 3: Development Stage

• Development of the front-end

An important part of front-end programming is making the app’s user interface and user experience. It’s important to make sure that the app works as intended on a range of platforms with different screen sizes.

• Development of the back-end

Back-end programming is mostly about the server side of an app. During this step, databases are made, users are verified, and the code for saving prescription data, sending push messages, and syncing between devices is set in place.

• API Integration

Your app needs to have APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) so that it can get info and services from other places. If your app has features like drug libraries, talking to healthcare providers, or connecting to smart tech, you need to integrate these features.

• Ensuring Quality Through Testing

Thoroughly checking your app will help you make sure that all of its features work as they should, that the data is correct, and that any bugs are found. Both automated testing tools and the manual testing done by QA pros are necessary to make sure that the software is provided reliably.

Step 4: Data Security and Compliance

• Medical Apps Made HIPAA-Compliant

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) sets basic standards for the safety of health information. If your app deals with healthcare data, it needs to meet these standards. To keep this private data safe, you must use strong encryption, access controls, and other security steps.

• Data Security and Encryption

No matter who your app is made for, you can’t say enough about how important security and data safety are. Encryption methods must be used to protect user information while it is being sent and kept. To keep up with risks that are always changing, it’s important to keep security methods up to date.

Step 5: QA and Testing

• Functional Testing

Functional testing is done on an app to make sure that all of its features and functions work correctly. This includes alerts, medicine tracking, test pill reminders, and any other parts that the user sees.

• Usability Testing

It is suggested that usability tests should be done with real users to find out how well the app works for the audience that it was made for. Ask them what they think about the design, how simple it is to use, and whether there are any issues.

• Performance Testing

Make sure your app works well on a variety of devices, at different network speeds, and with a lot of users. Speed up and make the app more fast so that users have a good time.

• Problem Identification and Resolution

Set up a reliable bug-tracking system to find, rank, and fix any issues that come up during testing. Talk to your development team regularly about problems and how to fix them.

Step 6: The Distribution and Deployment Phase

• Launch to the Market

Make sure your software is ready to be sent to app stores like Apple’s App Store and Google Play. Make sure you send in your app according to the rules, with all the necessary information, pictures, and app details.

• Compare and contrast both Android and iOS

You can either make an app for both iOS and Android, or you can make an app that works on both. There are different development and design challenges with each platform. This pick should be based on what the users want to reach value.

• Post-Delivery Branding Strategy

Set up a way to spread your app once it’s out there. You could market your app on social media, through email, or through app store optimization (ASO). You could also work with healthcare companies and groups to form relationships.

Step 7: Improvements and Updates in the Future

Your app will need to be updated and made better in the future to stay competitive and meet the needs of your users as they change. Adding features like telemedicine, data for tracking drug compliance, or the ability to work with smart devices should be given a lot of thought.

In the end, making a smartphone app that reminds you to take your pills and keeps track of your medicines requires careful planning, design, and development. If you do something to lessen the number of people not following their medications, you can have a hugely positive effect on healthcare and the lives of many people. When you make your app, keep the user’s needs in mind so that it can become an important part of their healthcare journey.

7. Why Partner with Us for Medication Tracking Software Development?

Our software development company has an excellent record in the healthcare field because we can handle a wide range of client projects well. Our skilled team offers services for the whole project lifecycle. Start by defining the project and work your way through planning, development, testing, launch, and maintenance. We focus on security, scalability, and rapidity when we make software that can be easily optimized and adapt to changes in the future.

Here, we can help you choose the best technology stack, which includes the cloud platform and connections with third parties. We will put together a team of experts for your project, including project managers, developers, UI/UX designers, testers, and DevOps engineers.

8. Conclusion 

Medication tracking systems are now popular in the medical field. Better healthcare services are made possible by healthcare professionals who help patients stick to their drug schedules.

Pharmaceuticals are one area of the healthcare business that can be improved by healthcare software. Because of these reasons, medical facilities should start using medicalmedicine software right away. It is an important part of the healthcare IT system because it has so many useful features.