Medication Management App Development Guide: Cost, Features, Benefits

Let’s imagine a woman named Kelly. Kelly is 38 and is managing several chronic conditions, including type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and anxiety. Each condition requires its own medication, making it challenging for Kelly to keep up with dosages, refill dates, and potential interactions in an overloaded businesswoman routine.

Luckily, recently, she was recommended a rescue solution - medication management software. Now, Kelly has a digital trusty assistant that offers her:

• Centralized control panel. All medications (including meds from different pharmacies) are now gathered and systemized within one simple application
• Synchronized refills. A sophisticated pill reminder software assists in sending timely reminders when it’s time to refill this or that medication, freeing user’s head from remembering individual dates
• Interaction detective. The software precisely scans potential drug interactions, enabling patients to discuss any red flags with her doctors
• Communication bridge. Such a solution facilitates the smooth sharing of users’ health insights with their doctors and pharmacists, ensuring they’re always on the same treatment page
• Insurance integration. Medication administration software supports integrations with insurance providers, displaying coverage details and co-pays for each medication

In this article, you’ll learn about what medication management software, including its cost, features, challenges, and popular market examples.

You have surely started to understand the use and purpose of the medication management application. However, let’s clarify the terms in detail.

Medication administration software is a digital tool designed to help patients and practitioners safely and efficiently manage medications. While patients can step into their treatment journey getting convenience of medication schedule organization, refilling, and accurate dosage control, practitioners can improve meds administration, streamline their administration, and simplify billing and reporting.

There are mainly 3 medication management app users:

• High-risk patients. Patients with serious health conditions that need 24/7 monitoring
• Seniors. Users who have a higher probability of forgetting about aspects of the prescribed medical regime
• Parents. Individuals who usually seek to supervise prescriptions for their kids or manage whole family treatment

Generally, medication apps can be utilized for two purposes: personal medication management and professional healthcare usage.

Personal medication management apps include:

Professional healthcare tools include:

As for 2022, the patient medication management healthcare app market share was valued at USD 2.7 billion and is projected to have a significant expansion of 10.7 % at a Compound Annual Growth Rate from 2023-2030.

These statistics represent a huge demand for medication tracking software. This is not surprising, as this software significantly simplifies the treatment flow, making it easier for users to take their medication precisely and timely. Moreover, the active medication management system user has a higher chance of adhering to the treatment plan than the patient who hasn’t discovered it yet.

The principle of electronic medication management software work is aimed at improving medication adherence and simplifying the healthcare process for patients and medical workers as well. So, we can point out the following operational purposes:

• Patient data storage. By inputting custom metrics (pain levels, digestive issues, mood changes, respiratory symptoms, steps, sleep patterns and quality, etc.) patient can track their condition as well as develop healthy habits in the future.
• Digital prescriptions. Through this, the healthcare professional can prescribe certain medications online.
• Automated reminders. Automated reminders help the patient keep track of their treatment plans, receiving short messages or notifications within an app.
• Educational role. Usually, most of apps for medication management provide users with textual or video educational health insights, primarily about drug intake
• Easy health management. By utilizing this, patients receive fast access to their medical history, as well as book and reschedule appointments.
• E-billing. Custom medication administration solutions may include functionality for streamlined payments, repetitive prescriptions, bringing automotive elements into medical billing, and creating billing history.

Patient medication management software can indeed turn traditional treatment into an engaging and modernized process. It can be applied in various ways and solve a great number of complexities an average patient can face. Here are 5 challenges medication management solutions can deal with:

Sometimes, it may be hard for the patient to keep track of all prescribed medications as well as proper dosages. This may negatively impact treatment outcomes and worsen patients’ well-being.

Besides customized notifications and alerts, medication reminder mHealth apps can help its users track their progress by visualizing medication plan adherence rates and motivating them to keep up with scheduled treatment. Moreover, robust integration with wearable devices can facilitate effortless intake tracking, providing accurate reporting.

One of the most recent health tech tendencies implies including a gamification element to traditional treatment. By engaging this, patients improve medication adherence by getting badges and points and consequently receive rewards (7-day free access to paid functionality, educational content, etc.) for their progress and treatment adherence.

Patients who have to take several types of medications at once, unfortunately, have a higher risk of drug interactions and adverse effects if not combined properly. Utilization of a mobile app for medication management can significantly minimize these risks, thanks to the following functionalities:

• Interaction alerts. The systems can scan prescribed medication for potential interactions, pointing out potential risks that may be discussed with the patient’s healthcare professional team
• Medication lists and intake schedules. The solution centralizes all needed medication in one easy-to-use panel, providing a clear overview of intake schedules and dosages.
• Condition-specific guidance. A lot of medication management tools offer educational materials for people with specific conditions that help them understand the nature of their disease and find the most comfortable treatment

Proper medication dosages require high accuracy. Otherwise, in case of incorrect measurements, the treatment may not deliver the demanded outcomes at best. Medication management software can help patients deal with this issue by providing:

• Dosage reminders. Medication reminder apps display accurate dosages alongside medication alerts
• Virtual measurement tools. Some applications offer pill identifiers, image recognition, and dosage calculations
• Educational materials. This implies providing users with clear instructions and intake guidance, depending on the condition and required medication

Dealing with multiple treatment courses and additionally remembering refill dates for each medication can be indeed challenging and frustrating. Patient medication management software is the right way to solve such difficulties. The functionality that simplifies medication refilling includes:

• Automated refill reminders. The software notifies users when refills are due, making it hard to miss the needed date
• Direct refill requests. Some apps enable users to request refills directly within the platform, eliminating phone calls and other bureaucratic burdens.
• Pharmacy integration. Unifying with preferred pharmacies allows the software to track refill status and notify users about medications in stock and when it's possible to picked up them up

For the average patient, it’s usually hard to predict how much the needed drug will cost. Nevertheless, drug affordability and access still remain a hurdle for a lot of patients, as sometimes the insurance may not cover particular medications. In case the patient is facing such complexities, the medication mobile health app can help them by providing the following capabilities:

• Cost comparison tools. Drug tracking apps can usually help users compare prices in different pharmacies with no need to research prices manually
• Pharmacy meds availability checks. The solution can assist users with providing real-time information about needed drug availability in nearby pharmacies. Moreover, some solutions have a medicine delivery app module, facilitating drug delivery to the patient’s doorstep.
• Coupon and assistance programs. Certain Medication administration tools connect patients to relevant financial assistance programs, helping to manage medication costs

Finally, it’s time to examine the most notable market players. Overviewing their experience may help you define the final medication management app development and marketing strategy, in other words, determine how to make your solution truly helpful, notable, and successful. However, before we’ll dive into the list, let’s divide it into 3 categories:

• General medication schedule apps
• Condition-specific medication management apps
• Pharmaceutical drug management apps

• Medisafe Companion. This is a product of a Medisafe company. In 2022, their medication management software obtained over 10 million users worldwide and was estimated to have 20M revenue. The solution combines reminders with a virtual pet that grows as the user medication adheres to the medication intake.
• MyTherapy. The software tracks medication intake and symptoms and offers a proud educational resource base. The platform counts over 100 million app engagements by their users.

• Curable. This is an application that helps users simply manage chronic pain. The company's revenue was estimated at 1M per year. The software utilizes Cognitive Behavioral Therapy techniques to manage chronic pain, as well as exercises and educational resources.
• Calm. This is the leading wellness and mental well-being platform with revenue of over 6M as of September 2023. The application focuses on mindfulness and relaxation techniques for managing anxiety alongside medication regimes.

• MyAstma (Astra Zenecca). With an overall company revenue of 43 billion U.S. dollars in 2022, MyAstma became one of their most successful digital products. The application can connect with a smart inhaler, identify triggers, track symptoms, and provide various educational materials.
• MyCrohn's & Co. With $55.138 billion dollars in revenue as of September 2023, AbbVie presented to their clients MyCrohn's & Co. - a solution that primarily focuses on Crohn's disease. The application offers symptom tracking and medication reminders.

To develop a medication tracker that is reliable, secure, and highly efficient, it’s vital to conduct its functionality assessment. To give you a hint, we have selected the key features that must be implemented into a medication tracking app.

If you’re a representative of the healthcare industry or plan to penetrate this domain, it’s vital to keep in mind the importance of strong patient data safeguarding. To make the user experience safe and seamless, make sure to include the following security measures into your medication management software:

• Robust password setting. Enforce detailed and strong password requirements, as well as remind your users to update it periodically.
• Multi-factor authentication. This brings more layers of security levels and implies users to choose 2 or more ways of authentication (email, phone number, biometrical verification like fingerprints or face scan, etc.)
• Secure data encryption. Patient data encryption, or in other words, turning information into code, is a powerful way to safeguard medical data from malicious individuals' intrusions
• Access controls. Restrict user access based on their role (patient, practitioner, administrator) to ensure confidentiality and divide permissions and competencies clearly

Know Your Customer (KYC) verification process is a procedure that is aimed at checking the identity of a user while creating a new account and then periodically over time, ensuring it’s not a bot or a fraudster. This feature enables you to ensure each account belongs to the right individual, minimizing risks with malicious penetrations within the user database and the whole medication management system. The checks may be conducted by requiring the ID or a real-time picture of an individual and linking their bank account or utility bills to verify the user's residential address.

Moreover, your product has to strictly comply with industry regulations like HIPAA or GDPR to ensure your healthcare data security approaches align with international practices and protocols.

Sometimes, missing a dose can drop off the whole treatment plan. Electronic medication management software significantly reduces drug intake skipping by offering reminder methods, you should also consider implementing:

• Customizable schedule. Allow users to set reminders for any medication, time, and frequency they require, no matter if it’s about morning pills or lunchtime insulin intake
• General and urgent notifications. Basic notifications can remind users about the scheduled drug intake, and urgent notifications can make the app flash red and vibrate in case the user is missing the critical dose
• Multi-channel alerts. By incorporating this, your app will be capable of sending reminders on various devices, including smartwatches, tablets, or even dedicated smart speakers

It’s amazingly convenient to have a tool that can become a personal digital medication logbook that is always at your fingertips. To offer your users with such an option, provide them with the following functionality:

• Comprehensive medication list. This should clearly standardize essential medications, including name, dosage, intake frequency, and even pills and package images for easy identification.
• Refill reminders. To prevent your users from medication shortage at the vital moment, insert the functionality that will warn users that their medication is low, so it’ll be necessary to order a refill

This feature serves as a guardian of each user, ensuring they take the right amount of the right medication. It may include clear dosage instructions, displaying dosage amounts and intake frequency in an easy-to-understand manner. Also, consider inserting overdose prevention methods and making the app flash in warnings in case you accidentally try to take too much medication. Apart from this, the patient’s practitioner can update their dosages within an app, keeping the user always on the treatment track.

At this point, medication administration software may become a safe bridge between patients and healthcare providers. With this functionality, a patient can make a snap of their prescription or ask their doctor to upload it directly to the app, eliminating manual entry and medication refilling issues.

A vast library of medications, proper dosage, intake frequency, side effects, interactions with other drugs, and guidelines for proper usage can significantly enhance a patient’s treatment process. However, remember to base your insight on trustworthy resources, like NLM or the National Library of Medicine (MedlinePlus, DailyMed), DrugBank, Micromrdex, etc.

This is an irreplaceable functionality for a healthcare provider. Integration of your medication management system with EHR and your general medical database is vital for the following reasons:

• Seamless data exchange. Each patient's medication history can easily flow to the Electronic Health Records (EHR) of their current medical establishment, creating a complete picture for a healthcare team
• Real-time updates. The practitioner can monitor how well the patient adheres to therapy and receive up-to-date insights on their health state
• Enhanced communication. With such integration, the patient can easily ask questions and exchange messages with their practitioner, receiving fast feedback within an app.

For you, it’s vital to think about your medication tracker app development in every smallest detail. By this, you’ll have more chances to deliver valid healthcare-oriented products that will offer users robust functionality and a seamless in-app journey.

As an experienced healthcare IT services provider, we want to simplify this task for you and present 6 steps your project will go through during the development process (based on our SDLC) .

Medication management app creation starts from your request that you left on our website. Then, your request travels straight to the Business Development Department; your personal manager with experience in Healthcare contacts you within 24 hours to schedule a meeting. After a short conversation, the manager will orient you on the next steps. We also sign an NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) per your request to safeguard your business information, facilitating its security and confidentiality. Also, you will be offered to sign an NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) to safeguard your project-related information and materials, facilitating its security and confidentiality.

At this stage, we contact you and ask you questions to understand the essence of your project concept. Then, we schedule a meeting with you and the solution team, which usually consists of Business analysts, a Solution Architect, and a UI/UX designer if necessary. Throughout the meeting, you and the solution team will be discussing your healthcare business needs and the purpose of creating medication administration software (problems the software is supposed to solve).

Then, the team will discuss the project work scope with you, as well as create a high-level feature list, and finally make a sketch of a solution architecture. Moreover, at this point, specialists consider the timelines, financial aspects, and additional collaboration demands.

After this, you receive a rough cost estimate of your medication management solution and a proposal. The stage duration may vary depending on your project and specific requirements, however, it usually takes 2 weeks.

This stage aims to simplify the flow of medication reminder app development and increase the final product quality. In simple terms, the discovery phase enables the team to turn your requirements into a clear plan. Here, your IT vendor overviews your business ecosystem and specifies its processes, as well as details earlier collected requirements like:

• The platform you want to cover (iOS, Android, web)
• Basic and advanced functionality to include
• Third-party integration (wearables, EHR system, smart health devices, etc.)
• Non-functional requirements (security measures, robust error handling, data backups, etc.)

Also, a UI/UX designer creates the prototype of your patient medication management software. Apart from this, the team creates a Feature Breakdown List (FBL), or in other words, a detailed list of the project’s functionalities and capabilities. The key aspect of this process is to focus on the most impactful functionalities and present features in the most digestible way.

Finally, the team prepares a detailed cost estimate of your future medication administration software by platform. Then you sign the contract, in case you’re satisfied with the numbers and cooperation conditions.

The development stage of your patient medication management software covers the technical part of designing the software and includes solution’s coding, testing, and deployment.

Your medication management system can be developed as a:

• Standalone solution
• Be a module in different healthcare systems

If you decide to create a standalone medication management solution, it’s recommended to start with creating MVP (Minimal Viable Product). This is a version of your drug management system with a primary feature set to ensure its reliability and functionality and conduct the product concept trial. By facilitating fast solution delivery, you can gather patients' feedback and decide if the drug management software needs improvements or advanced functionality implementation.

If you decide to make your electronic medication management software a part of your business systems, the approach will differ. In this case, your software development team will make a Proof of Concept (POC) to validate the integration concept's implementability. POC enables defining if the integrated medication management tools have practical potential within your tech environment (how they will interact with other healthcare systems and how effective the outcomes will be).

Then, the quality assurance team runs multiple tests to ensure if the medication management software is malfunctioning and is bug-free to ensure seamless app performance and user experience. Then, the team will handle a software demo to test the functionality. If you’re satisfied with the outcomes, it’s time to release the solution.

Finally, your medication management solution is designed, meaning it’s time to proceed with releasing it. Firstly, the development team runs smoke tests to assess medication management software stability and reliability. If major issues are detected, developers run hotfixes.

Then, you can go two ways depending on what solution type you have - standalone or integrated. With a standalone solution, the MVP is launched to digital marketplaces (App Store, Google Play). If you decide to make an integrated solution, your development team deploys it into the live product environment to monitor the integration process and ensure its success.

The cooperation is not over after the product is released. If you seek long-lasting results, it’s recommended to consider maintaining it using your development team's expertise.

Medication management solution support and maintenance process usually include the following aspects:

• Code optimization
• Bug fixing
• Advanced functionality implementation
• Support of latest integration versions, etc.

In fact, it’s quite difficult to receive a comprehensive cost estimation straightaway, as there are quite a lot of factors that impact the medication management app development cost:

The complexity and number of features you plan to include in your medication administration software influence the final cost. So, if you plan to make an app that truly stands out, including advanced features such as medication AI-driven insights, personalized treatment plans, or disease-specific modules, you should also count on investments.

The choice of the platform for the launch can be a tricky task. However, this is also a serious price-influential factor. There are two options:

• Mobile platform solution. The mobile solution is highly accessible as everyone’s personal device is always at hand. Utilizing mobile solutions, patients obtain the ability to track their medication intake in a convenient time, making just a couple of clicks. However, it requires more complex features and separate apps for each platform (iOS, Android), which may lead to higher investments
• Web platform solution. Everyone can use a web solution with no installation, which causes a broad reach across devices. Moreover, web solutions appear a more proficient solution for physicians, as it facilitates better data accessibility, depth, and security. Even though inferior in personalized experience and load times to mobile solutions, web development services cost can significantly please your wallet

There is also a way to optimize medication management software development investments by referring to cross-platform development services. You and your team can go through development cycles faster, resulting in faster time-to-market and more efficient implementation of new features and updates. Moreover, cross-platform healthcare solution frameworks are highly adaptive, enabling you to avoid extra investments in maintaining compatibility with multiple devices and operating systems.

Medication administration software development costs vary considerably across different regions. Primarily, you should pay attention to the vendor’s tech proficiency, experience in health regulations compliance, and communication approach. Besides, try reaching out to experts from backgrounds similar to yours to avoid potential issues with language barriers and cultural compatibility. To navigate you on the healthcare developers' rates, here are the development wages in the most popular outsourcing destinations:

As you see, the numbers are quite different. In North America, the pricing is quite high, which may not always automatically mean the best quality. On the contrary, in Asia and Africa, the prices are significantly lower, and the expertise is quite high. However, there, you can face a significant challenge - cultural and language issues, which will require additional time and effort.

Central and Eastern Europe are considered to be the golden means for medication management system creation. This region is famous for its people's profound tech expertise and good English proficiency. All this is for a moderate and reasonable cost.

The structure of the development team will also impact the overall medication management system creation cost. Depending on your project complexity, you may need to hire a varying number of developers, designers, QA engineers, etc.

Typically, the team members needed to build an electronic medication management software include:

• Project manager. The project managers supervise all processes connected to medication management software creation and resource allocation
• Business analyst. This expert acts as a bridge between the technical part of development and business, ensuring the medication administration software meets functional, and user needs as well as timelines and budget
• Solution architect. This specialist defines the overall system’s architecture, guiding the whole development process
• UI/UX designer. The designer is responsible for crafting an engaging and intuitive user interface
• Developers. These experts construct the solution’s core functionalities and features
• Data security expert. This specialist implements robust security measures and ensures compliance with data privacy regulations like HIPAA, GDPR, etc.
• QA specialist. They are experts who test the software throughout the custom medication reminder application development cycle, guaranteeing product reliability and stability

The custom interface design of your medication management system can also contribute to the solution's price. Pre-built design templates are easier to implement and will require less investment than a custom-made interface with complex user interactions and virtual assistants. But, the implementation of interactive elements like personalized reminders, or gamification, progress tracking, is essential for patient engagement.

Healthcare data security is not the thing that requires cost savings. Due to the sensitive nature of patient data, you’ll have to implement plenty of safeguarding mechanisms to minimize potential threats like data breaches, malware, hacker attacks, etc. Implementation of strong security measures like data encryption, access control, and two-factor authentication is obligatory, and you should count on this while planning your budget while developing a medication management app.

Moreover, remember that it is vital to create medication management software that will comply with healthcare regulations to make it trustworthy and truly secure. Depending on your region, the set of regulations may vary, here is an example s of industry regulations by region:

• North America: HIPAA, HITECH
• Europe: GDPR, ePrivacy Directive
• Asia: APML, PIPL
• South America: LGPD, LPDP
• Africa: NDPR, Data Protection Act 2019
• Australia: APPs, ADHA

Integrations with third parties can significantly enhance the value and impact of your patient medication management software. You can consider integration with:

• Healthcare data providers: EHR system, pharmacies, labs, and imaging centers
• Wearables and devices: smart fitness trackers, glucometers, blood pressure monitors, etc.
• Other healthcare and telehealth solutions: telehealth platforms, mental health apps, etc.

Even though integrations may require additional investments, this can considerably raise the value of your product, providing users with extended capabilities to monitor their health conditions and overall well-being, increasing use of medications.

Cleveroad is a healthcare software development services provider located in the CEE region. Our team has 12+ years of experience in the creation of bespoke healthcare and telemedicine solutions, including EHR/EMR systems, Remote patient monitoring software, telemedicine platforms, clinic management solutions, mental health applications, and more.

Cooperation with us can serve you with multiple benefits, such as:

• Custom healthcare software development. Our team will help you create medication management software that will help you offer patient and physicians assistance in prescription management and medication tracking
• Security-oriented approach. Our experts are attentive to medical data security, ensuring strict compliance with industry-related regulations and standards, such as HIPAA, GDPR, HITECH, HL7, etc., and employing robust security measures (RBAC to limit unauthorized access, Multi-Factor Authentication and automatic logouts, data encryption on patients’ devices, etc.)
• On-demand IT services. Medication management software building from scratch, IT infrastructure monitoring, healthcare legacy system modernization, IT consulting, cloud app development, etc.
• Third-party integration proficiency. Practical experience in integrating healthcare software with various 3rd-party tools, such as Kareo, Intermedica, Memora Health (EHR/EMR), Dosespot, Trueplill (electronic prescription), payment and insurance services, etc.
• Cooperation with an ISO certified partner. We have ISO 9001:2015 certified quality management and ISO 27001:2013 certified information security management for software development
• Project management office for managing multi-level medical projects. A robust Project Management Office that enables us to extract the best outcomes out of any project concept by precisely monitoring processes, creating robust risk mitigation strategies, and adjusting to the smooth delivery of a medical project of any level of complexity

To represent our qualifications and expertise, we’d like to present to you our featured healthcare case — Telemedicine system with appointment scheduling.

Our customer, a UK-based provider of healthcare consultations, reached out to us to create a custom system that can become a first step to penetration into the telemedicine niche. The telemedicine software had to become a digital space for all parties engaged: doctors, patients, and system admins. The solution was designed to support telemedicine consultations, and ensure adherence to regulatory demands (GDPR, CQC, MHRA).

As a result, we’ve delivered a ready-to-use telehealth platform that was seamlessly integrated into the client’s business ecosystem and became a telemedicine income source. Patients can now receive digital healthcare services, while doctors obtain the ability to optimize their time management, by providing services online via audio and video calls. The platform can undergo healthcare certification in the UK, as now it is fully compliant with the UK and European healthcare regulations.