MedMinder: Improving Medication Adherence Through Smart Tracking
Course Instructor
Pramod Gupta
Abstract
This project is an iOS mobile application designed to support medication adherence through structured tracking and automated reminder functionality. Medication non-adherence is a widespread health challenge that affects millions of people globally, leading to worsened health outcomes, increased hospitalizations, and higher medical costs. Whether managing a short-term treatment such as cold medicine, recovering from an injury, or coordinating multiple medications simultaneously, remembering to take the right medication at the right time is a task that is easy to overlook in the context of a busy daily routine. This application was developed to address that challenge by providing users with a reliable, intuitive, and personalized tool for staying on top of their medication schedules.
The app provides a predefined list of common over-the-counter medications loaded from a bundled JSON data file, complete with standard dosing information, active ingredients, medication types, and recommended intervals between doses. Users can browse and search this list by medication name, ingredient, or type, and add any medication to their active tracking list with a single tap. For medications not included in the predefined list, users can create fully custom entries by specifying the medication name, dosage amount and unit, interval hours, active ingredients, type classification, and an optional description. This flexibility ensures the app can accommodate a wide range of use cases beyond standard over-the-counter medications.
When adding a medication to their active list, users are prompted to configure a personalized schedule by selecting which days of the week they take the medication and what times of day each dose should be taken. The app automatically generates local calendar-based notifications that fire at those exact scheduled times on a weekly repeating basis. Rather than relying on simple countdown timers, the notification system uses calendar triggers tied to specific weekdays and times, ensuring reminders are delivered consistently and predictably regardless of when the app was last opened. Notifications are presented as banners with sound even when the app is running in the foreground, giving users an alarm-like experience that draws attention to an upcoming or overdue dose.
The main dashboard dynamically categorizes active medications by urgency, separating overdue doses from medications due within the next hour and displaying them with color-coded indicators for quick visual reference. Users can confirm a dose directly from the dashboard or from the active medications list, which triggers the notification to be rescheduled for the next occurrence in the user's defined schedule. If a dose is taken significantly earlier or later than scheduled, the app detects the time difference and prompts the user to shift all future scheduled times accordingly, keeping the schedule aligned with the user's actual routine. An undo buffer with a progress indicator gives users a brief window to cancel an accidental dose confirmation before it is permanently recorded.
A medication log records the scheduled time and actual time taken of each dose, along with whether it was taken on time, enabling adherence history tracking and streak visualization over time. The goal of this application is to deliver a clean, intuitive, and user-friendly tool that reduces the cognitive burden of medication management and supports users in building and maintaining consistent health routines.
MedMinder: Improving Medication Adherence Through Smart Tracking
This project is an iOS mobile application designed to support medication adherence through structured tracking and automated reminder functionality. Medication non-adherence is a widespread health challenge that affects millions of people globally, leading to worsened health outcomes, increased hospitalizations, and higher medical costs. Whether managing a short-term treatment such as cold medicine, recovering from an injury, or coordinating multiple medications simultaneously, remembering to take the right medication at the right time is a task that is easy to overlook in the context of a busy daily routine. This application was developed to address that challenge by providing users with a reliable, intuitive, and personalized tool for staying on top of their medication schedules.
The app provides a predefined list of common over-the-counter medications loaded from a bundled JSON data file, complete with standard dosing information, active ingredients, medication types, and recommended intervals between doses. Users can browse and search this list by medication name, ingredient, or type, and add any medication to their active tracking list with a single tap. For medications not included in the predefined list, users can create fully custom entries by specifying the medication name, dosage amount and unit, interval hours, active ingredients, type classification, and an optional description. This flexibility ensures the app can accommodate a wide range of use cases beyond standard over-the-counter medications.
When adding a medication to their active list, users are prompted to configure a personalized schedule by selecting which days of the week they take the medication and what times of day each dose should be taken. The app automatically generates local calendar-based notifications that fire at those exact scheduled times on a weekly repeating basis. Rather than relying on simple countdown timers, the notification system uses calendar triggers tied to specific weekdays and times, ensuring reminders are delivered consistently and predictably regardless of when the app was last opened. Notifications are presented as banners with sound even when the app is running in the foreground, giving users an alarm-like experience that draws attention to an upcoming or overdue dose.
The main dashboard dynamically categorizes active medications by urgency, separating overdue doses from medications due within the next hour and displaying them with color-coded indicators for quick visual reference. Users can confirm a dose directly from the dashboard or from the active medications list, which triggers the notification to be rescheduled for the next occurrence in the user's defined schedule. If a dose is taken significantly earlier or later than scheduled, the app detects the time difference and prompts the user to shift all future scheduled times accordingly, keeping the schedule aligned with the user's actual routine. An undo buffer with a progress indicator gives users a brief window to cancel an accidental dose confirmation before it is permanently recorded.
A medication log records the scheduled time and actual time taken of each dose, along with whether it was taken on time, enabling adherence history tracking and streak visualization over time. The goal of this application is to deliver a clean, intuitive, and user-friendly tool that reduces the cognitive burden of medication management and supports users in building and maintaining consistent health routines.
