We recently heard from one of our customers about how much she loves RememberItNow! medication reminders. Her enthusiasm was so contagious, we had to share.
Sharon lives near Sacramento, California with her five children and loving husband, Jim. Sharon and Jim keep a pretty tight schedule balancing full-time jobs and family duties. (more…)
If you’re a little reluctant about starting a Personal Health Record, don’t let these rumors fool you. A personal health record could save your life, so it’s important to do your research before you change your mind about not creating one.
Let’s examine some of these rumors more thoroughly:
1. “Your doctor is not allowed to share your health care information with family members.”
This is false and your physician actually is allowed to share relevant health information with your family members. Under The HIPPA Privacy Rule your health care provider is permitted to to share information directly pertinent to the involvement of a spouse, family member, or another contact you have identified with approval (usually this is another caregiver or someone else helping pay for your healthcare). (more…)
As some of you may have read earlier, we are now updating RememberItNow! with some fun gaming elements. We want to make it as fun as possible to take control of your health. What better way to do that than to play cool games with your RememberItNow! elephant?
However, to introduce these new gaming elements our elephant needs to be animated so he can do cool tricks for you. So, we posted a form on CrowdSpring asking for a new illustration want to share our favorite with you. Take a look:
Possible New Elephant
Or do you like our current elephant and prefer our homepage to stay the same?
Current Elephant
If we use the new elephant, we will use him everywhere – including the homepage. Since this decision is really important, we want you to have the first say.
Share your feedback and fill out this short survey.
As we all know, managing your medication is no fun. Or as our CEO, Pam Swingley’s father likes to say, “taking your pills is no thrill”. But what if software actually could make it a bit more fun - and you could get encouragement from your friends to remember your medicine and improve your health?
If you haven’t noticed already, websites and software solutions have been becoming more “fun”. For example if you compare the personal finance tool, Quicken from the 1990’s, to Mint.com of today, you’ll notice their differences. Mint contains more pleasing attributes – esthetically and in its usability. Quicken is…well, a bit boring. After Mint came along most of us were surprised managing finances was a little fun and easier than expected.
Our goal is to make taking control of your health a little fun too. There is no rule that says it should feel like a chore. Besides, if RememberItNow! can make it as easy and fun as possible to take your medications, you’ll learn to remember them and improve your health!
We agree with Jonathan Richman of DigitalDose.com, who plainly states, “Humans learn by playing…Somewhere along the way though, we stop playing and stop learning.”
With that in mind, our crafty product development folks are working on a point system to reward you for your steps toward good health. We want to make RememberItNow! really engaging, and can only make it close to perfect with your feedback.
So, please share what kind of game incentives you’d like to see. Or maybe you’d just like to share your thoughts on adding social media and gaming elements to RememberItNow! Do you have some creative insight you’d like to contribute? Please do! We’re listening.
Read more Jonathon Richman’s hopes to advance medication compliance, “The Only Way Pharma Can Improve Compliance: Fun” Or check out this video below on why fun can really change behavior.
Medication reminders, who needs ‘em? Well, when two-thirds of Americans currently use some form of medicine, (49 percent use prescription drugs and 30 percent use nonprescription medications), reminders aren’t such a bad idea.
In fact they should be the solution we should all focus on when the number one problem for treating illness today is because of patient noncompliance, at every age. In order to fix this problem, medication reminders have become more technologically advanced. Some of the latest innovations include the Tattletale Pill, the MagneTrace necklace , Pill Pets, and various smartphone medication reminder applications.
1. The Tattetale Pill
Its name gives away its most basic function; it tells on you when you forget your pills. Caregivers, family, friends, and anyone else helping you manage your health are alerted when a dose is missed. How is this possible? The Tattletale Pill is not necessarily a pill, but a capsule that contains tiny digestible antennas and a microchip the size of a period.
Sounds like a seamless solution right? There are still a few catches. The user must wear a small electronic device which signals a cell phone or laptop and powers the pill through faint bursts of extremely low-voltage electricity. As time passes, the antenna breaks down from the user’s stomach acid, and the microchip is passed along out of the digestive system. (more…)
Hooray! ”Forgetting Your Medication - 5 Surprising Facts” to the Voluntary Benefits Magazine, was featured by Voluntary Benefits Magazine.
Pam Swingley, our CEO discusses medication noncompliance in the workforce. It’s a bigger problem than we realize and is costing our country billions of dollars. Most of this financial burden is carried by employers who provide health insurance and benefits.
Read Pam’s article here, and discover the shocking costs of forgetting your pills, the new priorities in employee health objectives, the solutions in mobile health, and what to look for in a medication reminder service.
If you would like to contribute to this discussion, please do so! Let us know what you think about the future of health care and medication management.
Smart Phones Go Mass Market In 2010, J.P. Morgan Says
Source: BARRONS.com: Tech Trader Daily
Report: mHealth had $1.5B in 2009 revenues
Source: mobihealthnews
In Mobile, Fragmentation is Forever. Deal With It.
Source: TechCrunch
Editor’s note: Richard Wong is a venture capitalist with Accel Partners, an investor in AdMob, GetJar, and SunRun, and a former mobile industry executive. In this guest post he argues that the fragmentation of mobile devices and platforms is here to stay, and offers some advice to entrepreneurs on how to deal with it. Mobile data is on fire. De…
New studies show that seniors are struggling more than ever with multiple medication usage. MedCo Health Solutions and Kelton Research surveyed over a 1,000 people at age 65 and older, and discovered that more than half (51 percent) took at least five different prescription drugs regularly. Even worse, one out of four took between 10 to 19 pills each day!
No one can really answer why this number is so high, but the shocking news doesn’t stop there. The survey also reported that 57 percent of the group (three out of five seniors), forgot to take their medications completely.
Researchers learned that the more medications a senior took, the more likely they they forgot their doses. For example, 63% reported they forgot their doses if they took five or more medications, compared to the 51% who took less pills.
Managing medications is tough for everyone, and it’s especially hard the more pills you take. The Kelton Research report also revealed 34% (more than one-third) of seniors that took 5 or prescriptions, didn’t feel they educated enough on the side effects of their medicine.
Thirty-five percent couldn’t even name all the medications they took. Don’t fall under this category and take control of your health, or your loved one’s health by reading the following tips:
* Eleven Questions to Ask Your Doctor About Your Medication
* Four Quick Tips for Buying Your Medication Online
* Tips on Becoming an Empowered Patient
* Four Great Places To Research Your Medication
Hopefully managing your medication will be easier after reading these suggestions. Remember, it’s always helpful to set up medication reminders, whether it’s by alarm, text-message, or more, the solutions are out there and we are always here to help.
Easy-to-use online service empowers people to take control of their health with cell phone medication and event reminders, a personal health record, and private care community.
March 11, 2010, Orinda, CA - RememberItNow! LLC announced the launch today of the first eHealth service which helps people take medications correctly by sending reminders to their cell phone. RememberItNow! also makes it simple to maintain a personal health record and create an interactive private care community.
RememberItNow! is available from any browser at work, home, or on the go. It improves medication compliance, overall health, and keeps everyone connected: patients, family, healthcare providers, and more.
RememberItNow! Helps Americans Take Control of Their Health
RememberItNow! is for people who want an easy way to take control of their health, starting with their medications. (more…)
Tips about Home Device Medication Reminders
When it comes to medications reminders, you have a number of choices, from those that you wear, to reminders that come on your phone, to devices that are used in your own home.
Home medication reminder devices have developed into so much more than the old fashioned pill box dispenser. They’re more compact and convenient than ever. (more…)
