MON-148 Medication Adherence Mobile Apps And Diabetes Self Management Education/Support Guidelines

Abstract

Background: Medication adherence is a problem in the management of chronic diseases like Diabetes. As there are 325,000 mobile health apps in 2017, "medication adherence" mobile apps are now a subtype of this sector in the ehealth marketplace. More and more patients are using such apps to self manage their medication and disease management. Purpose: To evaluate free, medication compliance mobile apps in terms of the Diabetes Self Management Education/Support Guidelines Methods: We used Google Play Store to find the free medication adherence apps, ranging from 1 million to 50,000 downloads, for 2018. Android apps downloads are documented by Google Play whereas iPhone apps downloads are not available to the public. Inclusion criteria: apps that emphasized medication compliance. Exclusion criteria: apps with malfunctioning websites on a daily basis. Result: Ranked by most downloads to least number of downloads: 1) Pill Reminder and Medication Tracker by Medisafe (1 million downloads (DL)); 2)CareZone (1 million DL); 3) Medication Reminder & Pill Tracker (500,000 DL); 4)Dosecast (100,000 DL); 5) Med Help Pill Reminder (100,000 DL); 6) Alarm and pill reminder (100,000 DL); 7) Mango Health (100,000 DL); 8) Medicine time! (100,000 DL); 9) Mr. Pillster (100,000 DL) ;10) Medica (50,000 DL). 100% of the 10 apps have reminders and missed medication warnings. Other features included in the apps: rewards 1/10 ; HIPAA compliance 1/10; BP 6/10; FBS 6/10; HbA1c 2/10 ; weight 6/10; height 3/10; exercise 2/10; carb 2/10; 4/10 mood; 0/10 stress mgmt; BMI 1/10, lipids 1/10. Conclusion: Medication adherence apps are available to patients with smartphones. However, most of the current medication adherence apps do not track the important health parameters for diabetes management, according to the DSME/S guidelines such as FBS, HbA1C, weight loss, exercise, carb intake, stress management and BMI. We, as physicians, can use our knowledge to guide our diabetic patients in their judicious use of mobile health medication adherence apps.