Here are some tips to make the most out of Medications on your iPhone.
1. Add Your Medication Manually
Medications is one of the best iOS and watchOS features that will improve your health. Of course, you first need to let your iPhone know what medications you use. Fortunately, adding your medications is as easy as following these steps:
Open the Health app. Tap the Browse tab in the bottom right corner of your screen. Go to Medications. Select Add a Medication. Search for the name of your medication. If you don’t find it, try to Add your medication. The next steps depend on whether you found your medicine in the Medications list. If you didn’t find it, you’d need to choose a name and then select the type of medication and its strength. If you found it on the list, you’ll only need to choose the type of medication and its strength. Schedule the frequency and time when you need to take your medicine. When you schedule a time, you’ll get notifications to remind you to take your medicine. Once you’re done, tap Next. Choose the shape you want for your medicine. This is basically an icon to help you identify your medication. You can tap Skip at the bottom of the screen if you don’t want to use a shape. After you choose a shape, tap Next. Choose the color for the shape you chose and tap Next. Add any additional details you want and then tap Next. If you want, you also have the option to Skip this step. Choose if you want Medications to check for interaction with alcohol, cannabis, or tobacco, and tap Done.
And that’s it. It’s quite a lot of steps, but you want to be as thorough as possible when it comes to your medication. If you have more medications, just repeat the same steps to add all of them.
2. Log Your Medications
With Medications, you can easily keep track of the medicine you take and when you take it. But what’s the point if you don’t know how to log your medications manually? Fortunately, this is pretty easy, and all you need to do is follow these steps:
Open the Health app. Tap the Browse tab in the bottom right corner of your screen. Go to Medications. Under Your Medications, select the medicine you want to log. Tap Log. Tap Taken and then select Done.
3. Set or Edit Your Schedules
If you didn’t create a schedule when you added your medication or just want to change it, you could do so directly from the Health app like this:
Open Health. Tap Browse in the bottom right corner. Go to Medications. Select the medication you want. Tap Edit next to Schedule. Change the frequency and the time of day when you need to take your medication. When you finish, tap Done.
Add different times in case you need to take your medication more than once during the day or if you want to get more reminders.
4. Delete the Medications You No Longer Need
Getting rid of any medication you no longer need is really easy. Just do the following:
Open the Health app on your iPhone. Select Browse in the bottom right corner of your screen. Tap Medications. Under Your Medications, select the medication you want to delete. Scroll down to the bottom and tap Delete Medication. Tap Delete Medication again to confirm your decision.
And that’s it. Remember that you can’t undo this action, so you must be completely sure you want to delete your medication before doing it.
If you don’t want to delete your medication, follow the steps above and select Archive Medication. This will keep your medicine available in the Health app, but it will remove it from your reminders and any Health sharing you set up.
5. Edit Your Medications
Whether you want to change the shape, color or add more details, you can edit your medications from the Health app by doing the following:
Open Health. Tap Browse. Select Medications. Select the Medication you want to edit. Scroll down, and tap Edit next to Details. Edit all the additional details you want. If you want to edit the shape and colors you used, tap edit right below the shape. When you finish, tap Done.
6. Export Your Current Medications as a PDF File
One of the best hidden iOS 16 features is how easy it is to share all your data with your health provider. If you want to share your current medications as a PDF file, follow these steps:
Open the Health app. Tap Browse in the bottom right corner. Go to Medications. Scroll down to the bottom and tap Export PDF. Tap the Share button in the top right corner of your screen and choose how you want to share the PDF file.
7. Enable or Disable Dose Reminders
The Health app will send reminders when it’s time to take your medications. However, if you want to control annoying notifications on your iPhone, Medications let you disable dose reminders like this:
Open the Health app. Tap Browse. Go to Medications. Scroll down to the bottom and tap Options. Toggle Dose Reminders off.
If you feel like you need reminders, repeat the same steps and enable dose reminders again.
8. View Possible Side Effects
Medications will give you a list of possible side effects your medications may produce. It’ll also tell you the difference between the side effects you need to report and those that don’t require medical attention.
To view the side effects of your medication, you need to:
Open the Health app. Tap Browse. Go to Medications. Select the medication you want. Scroll down and tap Side Effects.
You’ll see a list of all the possible side effects. While the Medications feature shows which side effects require medical attention and which don’t, we recommend you always talk to your health provider whenever you feel it’s necessary.
9. Check Drug Interactions
Whether it’s alcohol, cannabis, or tobacco, you should know if your medication has critical interactions with anything else you consume. Medications will show you any interactions by doing the following:
Open Health. Tap Browse. Select Medications. Tap the medication you want. Scroll down and select Drug Interactions.
You’ll see a list of the possible interactions and whether they are critical, serious, or moderate. Remember to take this into account before you consume anything.
Make the Most Out of Medications
Medications is one of the best features in the Health app, and it’ll help most of us in our daily lives. Remember that you can always edit your medication, set reminders, and even share your data with your health providers. Try this feature and see what works best for you.
