![]() ![]() The search terms used were medication reminder, medication pill reminder, pill reminder, meds reminder, medication tracker, medication management, Rx, and medication. We, therefore, searched the Australian iTunes and Google Play app stores between December 10, 2015, and December 20, 2015, using 8 search terms that during the preliminary searches had the best performance in retrieving the apps of interest for this review. The apps available in these app stores are compatible with any mobile phone that uses the leading operating systems in Australia, iOS and Android systems, which together account for 97% of the Australian mobile phone market. The search was conducted in the main online app stores, iTunes (Apple Inc, Australia) and Google Play (Google Inc, Australia), that have more than 2 million apps available for download. This review was conducted in a similar manner to a systematic review by using a stepwise approach that included a search strategy, prespecified eligibility criteria, app selection through an initial screening of all retrieved apps and full app review of the included apps, data extraction and analysis, and quality assessment of selected apps using a reliable quality assessment tool for mobile health apps. The aim of this research was to describe a systematic and stepwise process to identify high-quality medication reminder apps by identifying and reviewing the current available apps and their features and to assess the apps’ quality by using a reliable quality assessment tool for mobile health apps. However, these reviews only provided a descriptive analysis of the available apps and their features without a deeper quality assessment. Previous reviews have identified available medication adherence–related apps and described the relevant features present in these apps. These medication adherence apps have many features, including reminders, that may help patients take their medication correctly and avoid medication errors and, hence, could address known barriers to adherence, especially for patients with high pill burden and complex regimens, such as patients with cardiovascular diseases.ĭespite this plethora of medication adherence apps, there is a lack of information on how they differ, how many and which features they have, their overall quality, and whether they are effective. The recent growth in mobile phone subscriptions, however, has spawned an exponential increase in the number of health-related mobile phone apps available in the app stores, including those dedicated to improve medication-taking behavior. Reminders sent via text messages have been shown to improve adherence in chronic diseases. Furthermore, there has been an increasing interest in using mobile phones as a tool to improve medication adherence. In recent years, the growing mobile phone ownership has made mobile phones a promising tool to deliver health care interventions. It is known that current interventions provide inconsistent results in improving adherence. Medication nonadherence is associated with increased risk of morbidity, mortality, and costs therefore, there is a need for effective interventions to improve adherence. Nonadherence to long-term therapies in chronic diseases is a global concern highlighted by the World Health Organization report in 2003.
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