(Source: Research cited by the then-US surgeon general in 2012.) Up to 50% of us don’t take our medicines as prescribed (wrong times, wrong amounts, wrong meds), according to NEIH.Īnd roughly 125,000 Americans die every year as a result. (Source: CVS Pharmacies based on 2008 data.) (Source: Network for Excellence in Health Innovation ).ġ10 million prescriptions a year are never even picked up. It only makes sense that we turn that knowledge into useful products.You want to hear some numbers that’ll curl your toes?Īn estimated 187 million Americans (58%) are on at least one prescription drug. ” And if not? Parker says: “We’re learning a ton about what it’s like for most people to have to manage medications. “Hopefully over time we can build trust with these folks so that eventually they feel comfortable switching their prescriptions to PillPack. “For some folks it feels like a big leap from ‘cool service’ to ‘please transfer my prescriptions to PillPack’,” Parker says. The app is PillPack’s physical service, digitized. Ultimately, the goal of the app is to let people see what PillPack can do for them without having to sign up first. “You can imagine how biometric and activity driven medication reminders start to get really interesting.” Parker says they’ve left the infrastructure of the PillPack app open to make adding such functionality easy once WatchOS 2 ships later this year. “The idea is that we will be able to build in more and more triggers over time to remind you to take your meds based on the sensors on your phone and wrist,” he says. Right now, reminders in the PillPack app are delivered according to time, or whether you’re leaving or arriving at a destination, but Parker says Apple Watch integration opens up some new possibilities down the line. When it’s time for you to take your meds the app alerts you on your iPhone or Apple Watch, and you have the option to either skip them, or take them, which rips them off the virtual roll. A physical PillPack ships as a roll of time-stamped plastic packets filled with pre-sorted pills, so the main screen of the app virtualizes that. Once you fill the app with your meds, the user experience is designed to be easy, efficient, and slightly whimsical. According to Parker, no other medication reminder app currently is able to do this, because they don’t have access to the data: you have to be a healthcare provider, or a pharmacy, to do that sort of search.
PillPack then searches pharmacy databases around the country for your meds, and loads them up. All you need to add your medicines to the app is your name, gender, and birthday. Where as most medication reminder apps require you to laboriously type in each and one of your medications and set individual reminders for each of them, PillPack automates almost all of this. And once people are already tracking their medicines through your service, make it as easy as a tap to switch pharmacies.Īvailable now for iOS, the PillPack app for iPhone and Apple Watch aims to be the “best medication reminder app on the planet, first and foremost,” says PillPack CEO T.J. So how do you onboard new customers without getting them to switch pharmacies? If you’re PillPack, you stream customers their existing meds in digital form by creating the most fully functional, easy to use, and delightfully designed pillbox app out there.