How to keep a medication log: what to record and how to share it

Start with a medicines list

Before you log any doses, write down everything you take. Include more than prescriptions:

• Prescription medicines, including inhalers, creams, eye drops, patches and injections
• Medicines bought from a pharmacy or shop, such as painkillers or hay fever tablets
• Vitamins, minerals, supplements and herbal remedies

For each one, note:

Add any allergies or reactions you've had to medicines. Copy the details from the pharmacy label or the box, not from memory, and update the list whenever something changes.

What to record for each dose

The log itself is a running record of what actually happened. For each dose, write:

1. The medicine and the dose taken.
2. The date and the real time. The time you took it, not the time it was due.
3. Taken or skipped. A skipped dose is worth recording too, with the reason ("felt sick", "ran out", "forgot").
4. A short note, if useful. Anything you'd want to mention to your doctor or pharmacist later, such as a side effect you noticed or taking it later than usual.

Record it when you take it. Logging at the end of the day from memory is where mistakes creep in.

As-needed doses

Some medicines are taken only when you need them, rather than on a schedule. On prescriptions this is sometimes written as PRN. These are the doses most worth logging, because there's no routine to jog your memory.

• Write down every dose with the time.
• Check your log for the last dose before taking another. The label or your prescriber will tell you the minimum time between doses and the most you can take in a day. Your log tells you when the last one was.
• Note why you took it. Over a few weeks, this shows how often you needed it, which is useful to share at your next appointment.

Sharing it with your doctor or pharmacist

Your log is most useful when the people who look after your medicines can see it.

• Bring your medicines list to every appointment, including hospital visits and medicine reviews.
• Mention everything, including supplements and remedies you buy yourself. Your pharmacist can check how they fit with your other medicines.
• Show what actually happened. Missed doses, as-needed doses and notes help your doctor understand how a medicine is working for you.
• Ask before changing anything. If your log shows a pattern you're worried about, talk to your prescriber or pharmacist rather than adjusting doses yourself.

Reminders: set them up separately

A log records what you did; a reminder tells you when to do it. They're different jobs. Medication Log doesn't remind you. Use your phone's alarms or a reminder app for that.

• Set a phone alarm for each regular dose time, and give it a label you'll understand at a glance.
• Tie doses to something you already do every day, like breakfast or brushing your teeth.
• A pill organiser with days of the week can help you see at a glance whether a dose has gone. Ask your pharmacist whether your medicines are suitable for one.

Keeping a log for someone else

If you help a parent, partner or child with their medicines, a log stops two people giving the same dose. Agree who records doses, keep one log per person, and make sure everyone who helps checks it first. Bring it with you when you go to their appointments.

Using Medication Log

Medication Log keeps this record on your phone:

• Add each medicine with its strength, form, dose and schedule: set times, a number of times a day, or as needed.
• Today's checklist is built from those schedules. Tap to log a dose as taken now, change the time if you took it earlier, mark it skipped, or add a note.
• As-needed doses can be logged any time, and the app always shows when you last took each medicine. If you log a dose within an hour of the last one, it tells you.
• History shows every day, and you can edit a dose or log one later.

It's free for up to 3 active medicines, with backup and restore to a file. Medication Log Pro ($2.99 once) adds unlimited medicines, a report for a date range as a PDF or CSV to share with your doctor or pharmacist, refill counts and themes.

Common mistakes

• Logging from memory hours later. Record a dose when you take it.
• Leaving things out. Supplements, creams and shop-bought medicines belong on the list too.
• Not recording skipped doses. They're part of the picture your doctor needs.
• Letting the list go out of date. Update it the day a medicine starts, stops or changes.
• Treating the log as instructions. It records what happened. The label, the leaflet and your prescriber tell you what to do.