• Medication
• Your Family's Health

Tools to Help You Organize Your Medications

You have every intention of following doctor’s orders when it comes to your prescribed and over-the-counter (OTC) medications and supplements. After all, you want to improve your health and lower your risk of complications. But this gets complicated when you or a loved one you care for takes several medications at once. 

Thankfully, medication-tracking tools can help you untangle the confusion and make it easier to follow your doctor’s orders – and not skip a dose. 

These tools range from no-tech or low-tech to higher tech options such as smartphone apps. 

None of these tracking tools is simpler than the tried and true, easy-to-organize medication log that you maintain on paper.  

And to make your medication log easy to access on your smartphone or tablet, save the document on your computer, on a cloud platform such as Dropbox.

Maintain a Log of Your Medications

You can create your own log or download a medication log template from the internet, such as the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's My Medicines List .

Record the following for each prescribed or OTC medication and supplement you use:

• Brand and generic name
• Dosage and schedule
• Reasons you take the medicine
• Prescribing physician
• Special advice on how to take – for instance, whether to take with or without food
• Description of medication’s shape or color
• Pharmacy’s phone number

Bring your log to medical appointments – and update the list as you’re taken off a medicine or prescribed a new one. Make copies of your log – one for your purse or wallet, one to keep at home, and others to give to a friend, family member or caregiver.

You can also use the medication log to guide you in setting up pill organizers for a week or more at a time for yourself or someone you’re caring for. 

And to make your medication log easy to access on your smartphone or tablet, save the document on your computer, on a cloud platform such as Dropbox.Or upload it on a document organization app like Evernote.

Tech Options

For organization, you can’t go wrong with a medication log – whether on paper or online. 

But you can add another level of sophistication and organization to your pill taking with tech options. 

These include:

• Electronic pill organizers and dispensers that sound a reminder alarm when it’s time for each dose. These dispensers also can send notifications to caregivers to alert them when a pill is taken or a dose is missed. 
• Medication-tracking apps for smartphones. These include free apps such as CareZoneand Medisafefor Android and iOS (iPhone and iPad) devices. These apps alert you when to take a dose or refill a prescription. Medisafe alerts caregivers when a dose is missed and can check for drug interactions.

Source: AARP; Institute for Safe Medication Practices; Consumer Reports