If you asked anyone today if they took any kind of medication daily or knew someone that did they would most likely say yes. Many of these people will carry around with them numerous pill reminder boxes and little paper booklets to log results in, the list could quite easily get bigger.

What if you could get an application to help you with that? To help you monitor and manage your medication, even help you monitor your illness with the tap of a button, surely anyone would jump at the chance? Well now you can. Taking into account the most common illnesses here are the 5 best apps to help make your day to day management of your medication a lot easier.

1. Inhaler Tracker

More and more familes unfortunately have a family member with Asthma. For some it’s just a mild form or for others it is extremely severe. For either case an inhaler is normally the treatment to help the sufferer. If you are like me I have a ventolin inhaler for my daughter which shes uses maybe two to three times a week. I use it without really knowing when its near empty and when I just have to guess when it is nearly done and get another from the doctors. This isn’t really an ideal situation and for a severe sufferer a risky chance you are taking to guess when it’s empty. This is where the Inhaler Tracker comes in, developed by Shaun-Austin Limited it keeps a record of every time you use your inhaler so then you know when it is almost empty and can replace it with a new one before it runs out.

The app is very easy to use but if you do need instructions there is an easy to follow help page. When you first launch the Inhaler Tracker you need to put in your inhaler details. For example for my daughter I typed in her name, the blue ventolin inhaler, and how many doses she uses each time, two. You can also choose the correct picture to accompany it and you then save it. That is the hardest bit done and you are all ready to go. Everytime you use your inhaler you launch the app and just tap the correct entry for the inhaler. It then deducts the amount you have taken. So everytime I ptap it for my daughter it takes two doses off.

What I like about this app is if you can’t remember whether you logged the dose you took there is a history log for each day. You just go into it and it tells you who took what and at what time exactly so there is no chance of you forgetting or adding it twice. You can also use it to log all of your family members who use an inhaler.

This app is ideal for any asthma sufferer but I think for a person who has severe asthma it could be a life saver.  [View in iTunes]

2. Asthma Journal

Any asthma sufferer will be aware that the doctors and nurses that you see regularly require you to keep a diary of what inhalers you took, your peak flow and any additional symtoms that you were feeling on that day. They use it to then decide the best course of treatment for you. Normally it is a little book that you complete but to be honest it can get fiddly or you forget it and it becomes more of a hassle to do. With the Asthma Journal help is at hand!

Developed by Ringful the journal is a questionaire type page for each day and designed by doctors. So you know the questions you are answering are what the doctors require to know to help you. To give you an idea the type of questions you answer are your peak flow, inhaler doses, if you missed any. There is also a section to answer whether you were wheezy or coughing or if it stopped you from doing your everyday activity. Basically lots of information that would really help when you go back to see your doctor for a review.

The Asthma Journal can even be connected to your personal Google Health account if you have one for easier sharing with family and the doctors. There is also an additional information section within the app that covers the latest news on Asthma prevention, research and treatment and it is updated daily. If you like you can also share the news on social networking sites like facebook. Therefore not just a great asthma journal but very informative as well. [View in iTunes]

3. Medslog

Medslog developed by ModesittSoftware is an application to help you keep track of your medicine consumption, which medicines to take and when to take them.

You can add any drug to the list or medicines you take from prescription drugs to creams and ointments. When you add each item you can also add what time you have to take the medication and if you want an alarm that can be set as well. Please note though that for the alarm to work the app needs to be actually running.

Everytime you then take your medicine you make an entry in your log of what you have taken. You can also add things like your blood pressure, blood sugar, peak flow and your general condition. These details are kept on your phone as your daily log but they can also be sent via email. So great if need to send to yourself or your doctor.

Medslog can also be used to monitor your available drugs quantity so when you are running low you can see easily and if needed set an alert so you will never be without your medication. You can also back up all your details so you don’t have to worry that you will lose the important information.

I think this app is definitely needed for a person who takes regular medication so that you never miss a dose but so that you also are never without. An important factor for most people who take regular medication. [View in iTunes]

4. Diabetes Diary

Diabetes Diary by Fridayforward is an ideal diary for any diabetic. It lets you record your insulin dose, glucose reading even your carbohydrate intake. For your glucose readings it supports mmol/L and mg/dL units. The actual app was wrote by a diabetic so all the details you would need for your next visit to the doctors are therefore within the app.

Every entry you make is saved and you can view on a month to month basis via history. It also can all be backed up to your mac or PC or you can send it via email.

The application goes into great detail, when you view your history you can see it not only in writing but also in a graph. You can record where abouts you injected your insulin and that too is charted on a diagram making it all very clear to remember where to inject your next dose. It’s all very easy just to quickly check back to see what you where like on a certain day.

The app is very useful and a lot easier to use than the normal paper booklet you have to complete. If you have it on your iPhone you mostly likely have it with you all the time and therefore never have to worry you may have forgotten your log book. [View in iTunes]

5. Heartwise Blood Pressure Tracker

Heartwise is developed by Swengcorp and is an application for recording individual results for your blood pressure, resting heart rate and your weight.

The app is very easy to use. You take your blood pressure and then type in your results. The app then records those results and gives you statistics from it. The statistics include, weight, heart rate, blood pressure and mean arterial pressure.

Once you start logging these daily results you can then see these details visually of how your blood pressure changes over time in a chart. The charts are easy to follow and can also be viewed in landscape mode. Its all very clear and easy to see with a click of the button. All the data you input can also be sent as a spreadsheet directly from the phone or via email.

All of your entries can be viewed, edited and deleted. The charts also have a ‘camera’ feature to enable to save photos to your iPhone.

Heartwise is a must have app to help manage and monitor your blood pressure. [View in iTunes]

So if you know any family or friend with any kind of illness that requires daily medication there is most likely one app above that would be suitable for them and make things that little bit easy for them.

Can you think of any other useful applications to help with your medication and illnesses? Let us know in the comments below.

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