MyTherapy Panel Review

MyTherapy is an app designed to help you effectively manage your medication by sending reminder alerts from your phone.

According to its website, more than 10 million people use MyTherapy, making it the most-used medication management app in the world.

The idea for the app materialised when the founders came across a 2003 World Health Organization (WHO) statistic showing that half of medications are either not taken at all or not taken as prescribed. This has serious consequences for both people and healthcare systems. So they decided to develop a comprehensive solution to address the issue, something that wasn’t readily available at the time.

The first version of the MyTherapy app was launched in 2013 for iOS (Apple devices) and in 2015 for Android. 

A MyTherapy spokesperson told the Tech Guide: “Here at MyTherapy, we strive to make life easier for patients. Our mission is to simplify patients’ treatment plan no matter how complex it is and to make it possible for patients to take control of their own health.“

They added: “The team remains focused on improving MyTherapy and its features to better serve users and support their health on a daily basis."

MyTherapy is available for free on Apple and Android devices. Once installed, you only have to enter only a few personal details to use the app: your name (you can use a nickname), gender and year of birth.

Once you’ve set up your profile, you can start adding your medications and supplements. There are 2 ways to do this.

• Use the in-app barcode scanner to scan your medication packaging.
• Search by the medication name or active ingredient.

You can choose your dose, how often you take it and the times at which you want to get reminders.

If you cannot find your medication in the app’s list, you can create a custom entry. When you do this, you can name it, select the unit (pills, patches, drops) and how often you take it.

The app was rated as either “fairly” or “very easy” to set up by 5 of our reviewers. 

Just 1 reviewer found the set up “fairly difficult”. This was because their Madopar medication was not listed in the database and they had to enter it manually. This reviewer also commented on the difficulty of using the barcode scanning feature.

“The app featured a potentially good feature for fast setup which was an option to scan the barcode on the meds packaging. However I could not get this to work and the barcode was obscured by pharmacy instruction labels on some packets anyway.” 

Other reviewers were similarly disappointed that Madopar and some other medication was not recognised in the database. But they didn’t feel that it affected the ease of setting up.

A reviewer who currently uses her phone’s alarm app for medication reminders said: “‘There were very clear instructions. It was easy to understand and simple to follow. Getting the medications in was the most difficult part because there’s just a lot of medication to include!”

Another reviewer agreed: “I was able to set it up really quickly, even though I had to input quite a lot of data. The medication list was incomplete so that some data still had to be typed in. Inputting the meds not on the list was tedious.”

MyTherapy’s main feature is its medication reminders. Other features include monitoring how much medication you have left and a symptom and activity tracker. You can also record upcoming appointments and input your healthcare providers’ contact details.

Most of our reviewers either rated the app’s overall features as “good” or “excellent”. 

Medication reminders

The app provides reliable reminders for all the medication you add to your list. Depending on your phone’s notification settings, you’ll get both a visible, on-screen notification and an audible sound alert. If you have a smartwatch linked to your phone, you may also receive alerts through your watch.

You can also select if you want to activate ‘critical alerts’ so you’ll still get reminders even when your phone is on silent or ‘do not disturb’ mode.

When you receive your alert, you can mark it as ‘complete’ when you take the medicine, or you can snooze the reminder for 30 minutes if you’re busy and want to be reminded later.

“The meds reminders popped up on my phone as expected and you clicked to acknowledge them. The reminders were easy to use and intuitive,” commented a reviewer.

A reviewer who takes medication 8 times a day, said: “It was helpful in keeping me on track with my pills. I have 2 types of medication that I do not take in the day and have to space out appropriately during the evening. If I was out and busy, then the app would remind me about medication. 

“It was also helpful to record the spacing of doses of levodopa during the day, so that I could track the wearing-off time.”

Stock levels

MyTherapy includes a medication tracker to help you keep on top of your supply. The app will remind you well in advance when it’s time for a refill or to get a new prescription.

“It’s a good feature to avoid running out of your important medication,” said a reviewer who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s 3 years ago.

A reviewer, who usually logs their medication in their smartphone health app had some issues calculating their supply at first. They said: “The stock level reminders were a bit of a maths exercise as I had various part-used prescriptions and I initially totalled a couple of meds incorrectly. However the app allowed you to make corrections later which I did.” 

Symptom & activity tracking

MyTherapy lets you track symptoms, activities, as well as your mood on a daily basis. You can also document all your measurements like blood sugar, blood pressure or weight, among many others. 

You can set separate reminders to record these things, to help build a consistent picture of your treatment and wellbeing over time.

The symptom tracker only lets you select symptoms from a pre-filled list, there’s no option to add your own. 

A reviewer noticed that “the symptom check doesn’t cover typical Parkinson’s symptoms,” including drooling and slowness of movement (bradykinesia).

Another reviewer called the symptom tracker “basic” and “not very helpful.”

A different tester commented: “I found the symptom tracker and outputs a bit limited in terms of presenting data back to me. But for its basic use, it does a solid job.” 

There is a section in the app to add your healthcare providers’ contact information. Only 1 reviewer used this feature. They said that the process needs to be simplified.

“I had to keep flipping between the app and my contacts list to add these. There must be a simpler way to just port the information over from contacts to the app.”

MyTherapy is free to download and use, and there are no ‘premium’ features that need to be paid for.

“It’s well worth trying. It’s a free app that does what it says. It’s useful,” a reviewer told us.

A 66-year-old reviewer told us they found the app “very useful” and liked all its features: “I really like this app. It was very useful as a pill reminder and symptom tracker. It helps to make keeping to my meds cycle really easy. The mood tracker is also useful.”

Another reviewer also really liked the app overall but has decided to return to using their phone alarm as they find it easier. They said: “It did help prompt me to take meds and think about symptoms, and look for patterns which was what I wanted. It’s a pretty easy way of reminding you to take meds."

“I have now gone back to the simplicity of just using my phone alarm. But if or when my symptoms change and I want to lean into that and get a better pattern I will use this app again to track symptoms too.”

Half our review panel said they were “very likely” to recommend the app to other people with Parkinson’s and would consider paying for it if the price were to change in the future.

An enthusiastic reviewer who takes 8 pills a day, said: “The app is easy to use and easy to integrate into everyday life, and is helpful for tracking medication. I think it would be worth paying for.”

Another pleased reviewer added: “This product is good at reminding me to take my medication. I would be prepared to pay for this app. I know how good it is.”