PillPack, the mail-order pharmacy that raised $50 million last June, has finally gone mobile, launching its first app, for iOS and Apple Watch. The PillPack app will be available to everyone, not just PillPack customers, and has several novel features for a medication reminder app.
“The best solution to adherence is simplicity, and the PillPack design tackles this challenge physically with our dispenser and individual pre-sorted packs,” PillPack CEO TJ Parker said in a statement. “Our goal with the app is to further simplify and re-imagine the medication management experience digitally so we can help folks with their medications, whether they’re our customer or not, and regardless of the number of medications they take.”
Users will be able to import their medication list using just their name, date, and social security number. For existing PillPack customers, the app will also autopopulate dose times. The app can also create context-aware reminders, which use the phone's GPS and other sensors to honor requests like "remind me to take my pills when I get to work". And the app records historical data about taken and missed medications that users can refer to later.
“Many apps attempt to provide an all-encompassing healthcare solution but fail to truly improve people’s daily lives,” Elliot Cohen, CTO of PillPack, said in a statement. “The PillPack Medication Reminders app is designed to excel at one thing: helping people remember to take their medications by leveraging the capabilities of the iPhone and Apple Watch, and making reminders fit their lifestyle rather than the other way around.”
PillPack offers free online and by-mail pharmacy services -- customers pay their monthly co-pay but no extra fee for the shipping or services. After a doctor e-prescribes or faxes in a prescription, PillPack sends a customer all of his or her medications for the next 14 days, prepackaged by dose.
Using web tools, customers can monitor their shipments and add over-the-counter medications and vitamins to their orders. PillPack will also send the user a message asking if they need to update medications before each shipment so they can make any necessary changes. Users can see how much their meds cost, and how much their insurance contributes. PillPack customers also have 24-7 access to their pharmacist by phone if they have any concerns with their medication. And the service accepts most drug insurance plans, including many Medicare plans.
Since the company launched in February 2014, PillPack has shipped more than 1 million dose packs and raised $62 million in venture capital
