PATIENT MONITORING PRESCRIPTIONS REMINDER FOR

ANDROID APPLICATION

PATRICIA ABUTI

5031110618

KITALE NATIONAL POLYTECHNIC

JEREMIAH OMWOYO

SUBMITTED TO KENYA NATIONAL EXAMINATION

COUNCIL IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT FOR THE AWARD
OF DIPLOMA CERTIFICATE IN MEDICAL ENGINEERING.

18/10/2024

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DECLARATION
I hereby declare that this trade project is my original work, I also a firm that it has not be
presented to this institution or any other college for academic purpose or any other purpose.

PATRICIA ABUTI.

SIGNATURE…………………………………….
DATE…………………………………………

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APPROVAL
This project has been submitted for examination with my approval as the institution supervisor

NAME…………………………………………...

SIGINATURE…………………………………. DATE…………………………………….

LECTURER

KITALE NATIONAL POLYTECHNIC

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AKNOWLEDGEMANT

I thank my almighty God of his love for enabling me to write this project also I acknowledge
my parents and my fiancé for their financial, strength, welfare and support. I also
acknowledge my institute management, principal, math’s and applied science department
lecturers and my supervisor for their entire support which make this project a success. May
the mercy and blessing of God be upon us all.

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ABSTRACT
The category of patients involves all human beings-teachers. students. businessmen,
housewives, children and also all of us have a busy hectic schedule. Today's life is full of
responsibilities and stress. So people are prone to diseases of different types and it is our duty
to make ourselves stay fit and healthy. If the patient stays at home then he or she might get
someone to look after him/her but when one is not at home, is out of the city or state away
from home then it is hard for the family members to call them and remind them their dosage
timings every time.
In our developing and technology dependent life we totally rely on gadgets especially smart
phones. Today everyone has a smart phone. With this we get an opportunity to use
technology in a better way so that it can made useful to us. And it plays an important part in
our daily life and helps us staying fit in many ways.
The remarkable problem is that patients forget to take the proper medicines in proper
proportion and in proper time. Medication adherences, which refers to the degree or extent to
which a patient takes the right medication at the right time according to a doctor's
prescription, has recently emerged as a serious issue many studies have reported that non-
adherences may critically affect the patient, thereby raising medical costs! Medication no
adherence is a common, complex, and costly problem that contributes to poor treatment
outcomes and consumes health care resources.

Table of Content

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s
DECLARATION.....................................................................................................................................2
AKNOWLEDGEMANT.........................................................................................................................2
ABSTRACT.............................................................................................................................................3
CHAPTER ONE......................................................................................................................................6
1.0 INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................................................6
1.1 BACKGROUND...........................................................................................................................6
1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT............................................................................................................7
1.3 OBJECTIVES....................................................................................................................................7
1.3.1 Main objectives..........................................................................................................................7
1.3.2 Specific objectives......................................................................................................................8
1.4 Significant of the study..................................................................................................................8
1.4.1 Users scope.................................................................................................................................8
1.5 Data flow diagram..........................................................................................................................9
CHAPTER TWO...................................................................................................................................10
LITERATURE REVIEW..................................................................................................................10
2.0 Introduction..................................................................................................................................10
2.1 Related Reminder Mobile Application........................................................................................10
2.2 Proposed System and Implementation.........................................................................................11
2.3 An Advantages of the Mobile Reminder System........................................................................11
CHAPTER THREE...............................................................................................................................12
SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT METHODOLOGY............................................................................12
3.0 Introduction..................................................................................................................................12
3.1 Android framework and software environment.........................................................................12
3.2 Rapid application development..................................................................................................12
Figure1: Rapid application.....................................................................................................................13
How to use this stage?............................................................................................................................13
How to use this stage?............................................................................................................................14
Stage 1: Business Modeling...................................................................................................................15
Stage 2: Data Modeling..........................................................................................................................15
Stage 3: Process Modeling.....................................................................................................................16
Stage 4: Application Generation............................................................................................................16
Stage 5: Testing and Turnover...............................................................................................................16
3.6.1 Functional requirement.............................................................................................................18
3.6.2 Non-functional requirement.....................................................................................................18
3.7 Facts finding....................................................................................................................................19
3.8 Dataflow diagram.....................................................................................................................19
3.9 Use case diagram.........................................................................................................................20
3.10.1 Java software Development Kit..........................................................................................21

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 3.10.2 Android studio.....................................................................................................................21
3.10.3 Software Development Kit (SDK)......................................................................................21
CHAPTER FOUR..................................................................................................................................22
4.1. Advantages of the proposed system............................................................................................22
4.2. Conclusion..................................................................................................................................22
REFERENCES......................................................................................................................................23

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 CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
This chapter present to us the background of the study, problem of the statement, objectives
and significant of the study.
1.1 BACKGROUND
Today’s life is full of responsibilities and stress, consequently, people are prone to diseases
of different types. If the patient stays at home, then he or she might get someone to look
after him/her but when one is not at home, is out of the city or state away from home then it
is hard for the family members to call them and remind them their dosage timings every
time. In our developing and technology dependent life we totally rely on gadgets especially
smart phones. Today everyone has a smart phone. With this we get an opportunity to use
technology in a better way so that it can be useful to us. Effective medication management
services reduce illness and death rates to provide safer and more reliable healthcare
services.

According to Park, KeeHyun & Lim, SeungHyeon, (2012) Park et al proposed medication
reminder synchronization system based on data synchronization. It transmits OMA (open
mobile alliance) DS (data synchronization) based messages containing the patient’s
medication data and the device configuration data to a remote manager/medical staff. It also
synchronizes data (including medication schedules) Modified/generated by these personnel
in the medication server.

Discharged patients from the hospitals need more medication order compliance creating
the n essential conditions for reviewing the patient medication administration orders after
discharge decreases the hospitalization and mortality, this will increase the patient quality
of life. The safety improvement of the medication therapy is more important in the
outpatient care because prescribed medications have different types and variations.
1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT
The remarkable problem is that patients forget to take the proper medicines in proper
proportion and in proper time. Medication adherence, which refers to the degree or extent
to which a patient takes the right medication at the right time according to a doctor’s
prescription, has recently emerged as a serious issue because many studies have reported
that non-adherence may critically affect the patient, thereby raising medical costs.
Medication no adherence is a common, complex,
and costly problem that contributes to poor treatment outcomes and consumes health

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 care resources.
1.3 OBJECTIVES
1.3.1 Main objectives
The main objective of this paper is the design, construction and implementation of
patient Medicine prescriptions reminder android application.
1.3.2 Specific objectives
i. To design an application that uphold an appropriate medication schedule

ii. To integrate the application with alarm for reminder

iii. To develop an application that gives room for a patient to share the
medication response with doctor.
1.4 Significant of the study
The proposed system is based on Android Operating system which will remind the users. To
take medicines on time through notification and automatic alarm ringing system.
1.4.1 Users scope
The main users of the system are doctors and patients. Doctors are responsible to
overseeing what is going on in the system. The doctor logs in using user email and
password, sees available registered users in the system. Patients are able to register to the
system using their emails and passwords, login to the system.

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1.5 Data flow diagram

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 CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW
2.0 Introduction
This chapter present to us the literature review of the proposed system and its
usability and advantages of the proposed system
2.1 Related Reminder Mobile Application
Many Medication Systems have been developed based upon different platforms and
concepts. Use of healthcare related apps is growing but there are many issues related to
their functionality. According to Slagle (2011), My MediHealth is a medication reminder
system for children. It runs on mobile devices such as smart phones, providing user
interfaces for configuring medication schedules and user alerts for reminding users about
the time and type of medication according to the configured medication schedule. Some
systems use sensors, radio-frequency identification (RFID), or motion detection
technologies to ensure that patients actually take their medications. The application didn’t
provide a cover for all kinds of diseases especially amongst adults and by extension
respective medications.

According to Park (2012), he proposed medication reminder synchronization system based

on data synchronization. It transmits OMA (open mobile alliance) DS (data
synchronization) based messages containing the patient’s medication data and the device
configuration data to a remote manager/medical staff. It also synchronizes data (including
medication schedules) modified/generated by these personnel in the medication server.

According to Prasad, B., (2013), he has discussed the approach of Medicine reminder pro.
It is a free application which supports up to 15 reminders. User can select them in either
repeating or non-repeating alarm patterns. Any hourly time interval between alarms can be
selected, starting from the minimum of 1 hour. At the scheduled time, application will
produce a notification with an alarm, vibration or LED indication

According to Zao, (2010) Smart Phone Application which tries to avoid medicine
administration errors. There are many loopholes of existing reminder systems. To list a
few: They do not provide disease wise searching of the doctors, no optional
notification only compulsion,
no facility for scheduling of appointments to the doctors. Some of the systems have a
default alarm tone so the users cannot change them. Lastly, many of the systems available

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require special hardware which need to be purchased.
2.2 Proposed System and Implementation
The proposed system is android based. It reminds the patient to take medicines on time as
per the doctor’s directive. This happens through notification from the app and a
synchronized automatic alarm ringing system. The application set up comprises of a user
authentication phase and a reminder page. After a successfully sign in, the patient sets a
reminder that incorporates the name of the medication, instructions, schedule type
(hours/days), the starting date and ending date.
2.3 An Advantages of the Mobile Reminder System
i. The users will get the notifications through also ALARM.
It will provide the information about the medicine timings. The scheduled appointment
with the doctor with the contact details including visiting time, venue and availability at
different hospitals in case the appointment is missed at the scheduled place. The new
appointment will be set accordingly. The system focuses on improving the rate of
attendance at healthcare appointments. The personal phone notifications and reminders
are a strong supporting tool in improving medication adherence strategies.

ii. It supports an easy implementation as it is less expensive.

Reliable, scalable, accessible to anyone with smartphones, and do not require separate
devices, packaging or extra hardware. In case if the user’s phone is switched off and he
has set the alarm and the notification is set on. Also, still he or she will get the
notifications through email or message (on his device as well as on other registered
number), so it works even when you are running out of the battery.

iii. It is a facility of reminding the doctor’s next appointment.

In the system has been focused. The implementation of a navigation system which will
allow users to locate the nearest registered hospitals according to their current
location. The location is based on searching of the doctors as well as the disease wise
searching has been focused which makes the application more important.

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 CHAPTER THREE

SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT METHODOLOGY

3.0 Introduction
This chapter present system development methodology used in development and
implementation of mobile application for medicine reminder application.

3.1 Android framework and software environment

Android is a platform architected in the form of a software stack. The stack components
consist of applications, application frameworks, run-time environment and libraries. The
operating system is developed by the goggle and is made open source so that users can
extend the functionality and usefulness of the applications. The android applications are
developed in java using android software development kit.

3.2 Rapid application development

Rapid application development (RAD) is an agile project management strategy popular in

software development. The key benefit of a RAD approach is fast project turnaround,
making it an attractive choice for developers working in a fast-paced environment like
software development. This rapid pace is made possible by RAD’s focus on minimizing
the planning stage and maximizing prototype development. By reducing planning time and
emphasizing prototype iterations, RAD allows project managers and stakeholders to
accurately measure progress and communicate in real time on evolving issues or changes.
This results in greater efficiency, faster development, and effective communication. RAD
follows four main phases.

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Figure1: Rapid application

The Rapid Application Development is divided into four distinct phases:

Requirement planning

User design construction

Cutover

1 Requirements planning phase

During this stage, developers, clients (software users), and team members communicate to
determine the goals and expectations for the project as well as current and potential issues
that would need to be addressed during the build.

How to use this stage?

i. Researching the current problem

ii. Defining the requirements for the project

iii. Finalizing the requirements with each stakeholder’s approval

It is important that everyone has the opportunity to evaluate the goals and expectations for

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the project and weigh in. By getting approval from each key stakeholder and developer,
teams can avoid miscommunications and costly change orders down the road.

2 User design phase

Once the project is scoped out, it’s time to jump right into development, building out the
user design through various prototype iterations. This is the meat and potatoes of the RAD
methodology and what sets it apart from other project management strategies. During this
phase, clients work hand in hand with developers to ensure their needs are being met at
every step in the design process. It’s almost like customizable software development where
the users can test each prototype of the product, at each stage, to ensure it meets their
expectations.

All the bugs and kinks are worked out in an iterative process. The developer designs a
prototype, the client (user) tests it, and then they come together to communicate on what
worked and what didn’t. This method gives developers the opportunity to tweak the model
as they go until they reach a satisfactory design. Both the software developers and the
clients learn from the experience to make sure there is no potential for something to slip
through the cracks.

3 Construction phase

Phase three takes the prototypes and beta systems from the design phase and converts them
into the working model. Because the majority of the problems and changes were addressed
during the thorough iterative design phase, developers can construct the final working
model more quickly than they could by following a traditional project management
approach.

How to use this stage?

i. Preparation for rapid construction

ii. Program and application development

iii. Coding

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 iv. Unit, integration, and system testing

The software development team of programmers, coders, testers, and developers work
together during this stage to make sure everything is working smoothly and that the end
result satisfies the client’s expectations and objectives.

This third phase is important because the client still gets to give input throughout the
process. They can suggest alterations, changes, or even new ideas that can solve problems
as they arise.

4 Cutover phase

This resembles the final tasks in the System Development Life Cycle implementation
phase, including data conversion, testing, changeover to the new system, and user training.
Compared with traditional methods, the entire process is compressed. As a result, the new
system is built, delivered, and placed in operation much sooner.

3.3 Why Use of Rad

The very reason for the popularity of RAD is because it focuses more on testing and
turnover. Each prototype is tested by the user and feedback is collected. This feedback is
used to modify the existing project structure and implement changes in accordance with
the user interaction with the prototype
3.4 Rapid Application Development Model

The following describes the stages that occur during the development of RAD models.
This includes:
Stage 1: Business Modeling

This step in the RAD model takes information gathered through many business related
sources. The analysis takes all the pertinent information from the company. This
information is then combined into a useful description of how the information can be used,
when it is processed, and what is making this specific information successful for the
industry.

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Stage 2: Data Modeling

During the Data Modeling stage, all the information gathered during the Business
Modeling phase is analyzed. The quality of every group of information is carefully
examined and given an accurate description. A relationship between these groups and their
usefulness as defined in the Business Modeling step is also established during this phase of
the RAD model.

Stage 3: Process Modeling

The Process Modeling phase is the step in the RAD model procedure where all the groups
of information gathered during the Data Modeling step are converted into the required
usable information. During the Process Modeling stage changes and optimizations can be
done and the sets of data can be further defined. Any descriptions for adding, removing, or
changing the data objects are also created during this phase.

Stage 4: Application Generation

The Application Generation step is when all the information gathered is coded, and the
system that is going to be used to create the prototype is built. The data models created are
turned into actual prototypes that can be tested in the next step.

Stage 5: Testing and Turnover

The Testing and Turnover stage allows for a reduced time in the overall testing of the
prototypes created. Every model is tested individually so that components can quickly be
identified and switched in order to create the most effective product. By this point in the
Rapid Application Development model, most of the components have already been
examined, so major problems with the prototype are not likely.
3.5 Benefits of Rapid application development

 Quicker delivery
We’ll start with the easy one, since it’s built into the name. RAD promises faster end
delivery of the software because it is highly iterative and can get to the goal quicker.
 Quicker adjustments
Things often change as the development process goes on. RAD gives a framework

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 where these midstream adjustments are actually encouraged and made quickly during
development.
 Fewer errors
Because RAD utilizes a repository of components for reuse, there are often fewer
errors in the code which usually makes the testing time shorter as well. The final
product will already be tested and have fewer defects than other methods.
 Lower development cost
RAD may require more money spent on talented developers. However, by shortening
the development time, these costs may work out to be the same. The big cost advantage
of RAD is that you never have to rerun the project again from the beginning if the
client wants major changes, leading to less cost overrun.

Once an application is released using RAD, maintenance is generally quick and

painless. With traditional models, any fixes require significant planning, testing, and
staffing.
 Faster release of versions
For applications developed through RAD, releasing a new version of the product feels
just like another iteration and can be done quickly, as opposed to creating a large plan
that can take many months to complete.
 Better adoption of new technologies
If you are involved in a waterfall project and a new technology emerges that might help
you, there’s very little chance you can add it; there’s just too much risk and work to go
back and change the requirements. With RAD, new technologies can be immediately
tried, tested, and evaluated.
 More involvement from business
RAD relies on lots of involvement with the client and end user. Development happens
frequent updates, which means the end product will be closer in scope to what the
client actually wants.
 More usable software
When planning under a traditional model, developers will focus on the areas that are
most interesting or challenging to them. With RAD, the question is always what the
client actually needs. Therefore, in the end, the final product will be much more usable
instead of just being a technological marvel.

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  Better risk control
With RAD, you can focus on risk factors early in the process and continue to discuss
them as development goes on. Risks may also reveal themselves during development
and can be addressed immediately. In other models, risks are put on hold until the final
version appears, which sets you up for many risks you did not consider at the
beginning.
 Happier clients
In general, IT teams that use RAD principles will have a better relationship with
business clients as they are more collaborative and deliver more useful products to
them.
 Less chance of catastrophe
Everyone has seen or heard of that project that lasted for months and in the end had to
be trashed at a great loss of time, money, and morale. RAD principles can help you
avoid such terrible situations as any doomed project will be weeded out much earlier.
 Better integrations
In the waterfall method, integrations with other software are one of the last things to
happen. With RAD, they are built throughout the process. Integrations can make or
break the effectiveness of an application, and knowing how they will function early on
is key.
3.6.1 Functional requirement

A functional requirement defines a function of a system or its component perform the

following functions;

I. The system will allow new Patient to register and login to the system to access the
services.

II. The system allows only authorized users to login into system by authentication
through user email and password.

III. System can allow users to reset the password.

IV. The system provides doctor panel where he or she is able to login into the system
update the system by adding product items into the system, view registered users and

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 orders from their customers.

V. Patient are able to set the reminder for medications

3.6.2 Non-functional requirement

These are requirement that specifies criteria that can be used to judge the operation of a
system, rather than specific behaviors;
I. Effectively. No single user should strain while using the application
II. Scalability -The application should handle increased service load without
reducing its performance
III. Integrity- no unauthorized modification of data should be allowed

IV. Usability- the user should be in a position to complete his or her tasks with ease and

3.7 Facts finding

Fact-finding Techniques. Fact finding is process of collection of data and information
based on techniques which contain sampling of existing documents, research.

3.8 Dataflow diagram

A data flow diagram (DFD) maps out the flow of information for any process or system.
Below is dataflow diagram for mobile application for medication reminder.

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Figure 2: Data flow diagram for mobile reminder application

3.9 Use case diagram

Use case diagrams are usually referred to as behavior diagrams used to describe a set of
actions (use cases) that some system or systems (subject) should or can perform in
collaboration with one or more external users of the system (actors).

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Figure 3: Use case diagram for mobile reminder application

3.10 System development tools

Android-Based mobile application used the following tools in development.

3.10.1 Java software Development Kit.

The Java Development Kit (JDK) is a software development environment used for
developing Java applications and applets.
3.10.2 Android studio
This the integrated development environment Google's Android operating system, built on
JetBrains' IntelliJ IDEA software and designed specifically for Android development.

3.10.3 Software Development Kit (SDK)

The Android SDK (software development kit) is a set of development tools used to develop
applications for Android platform. The Android SDK includes the following: Required
libraries. Debugger. An emulator (AVD).

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 CHAPTER FOUR

4.1. Advantages of the proposed system

The users will get the notifications through SMS also. It will provide the information about
the medicine timings. The scheduled appointment with the doctor with the contact details
including visiting time, venue and availability at different hospitals in case the appointment is
missed at the scheduled place. The new appointment will be set accordingly. The system
focuses on improving the rate of attendance at healthcare appointments. The personal phone
notifications and reminders are a strong supporting tool in improving medication adherence
strategies. The New England Healthcare Institute estimates that S290 billions of healthcare
expenditures could be avoided if medication adherence were improved [13]. It supports an
easy implementation as it is less expensive, reliable, scalable, accessible to anyone with
smartphones, and do not require separate devices, packaging or extra hardware. In case if the
users phone is switched off and he has set the alarm and the notification is set on, still he will
be able to get the notifications through email or message (on his device as well as on other
registered number). so it works even when you are running out of the battery. Also a facility
of reminding the doctor's next appointment in the system has been focused. We have also
implemented a navigation system which will allow users to locate the nearest registered
hospitals according to their current location. The location based searching of the doctors as
well as disease wise searching has been focused which makes the application more suitable,
more user friendly with great features and satisfactory results.

4.2. Conclusion
The application gives reliable reminders, good user interface, nice user experience and it
supports many new features supporting medication adherence. We made a survey of 100
people including people of all ages. This showed that the combination of all the
functionalities provided is useful to the people of all ages. Searching doctor disease wise
was surveyed beneficial to the people aged around 40 of the total population on whom the
survey was made. Again the location based (Area wise) searching of the doctor was a good
choice to the population ageing 58. People ageing under 55 found useful the feature of
scheduling of the appointment. People of the greater ages are more likely to forget the
medicine timings as well as remembering their appointments. The users will get the
schedule of medicine in-take time with medicine description. starting and ending date of m,
notification through message or email, automatic alarm ringing system and navigation
system. If the phone is running out of battery, then too the system gives the notifications
through email and other registered number. So this was found beneficial to the people
ageing under 45 as they are more likely to access emails. The automatic alarm ringing
feature was proved beneficial to 100% of the total population. The youths are very much
concerned with the new health care awareness and are interested in knowing about new
medical techniques being developed every day. So this feature was found useful to the
youths. Hence the overall system served well in our survey and it truly supports Medication
Adherence.

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REFERENCES

Slagle, J.M., Gordon, J.S., Harris, C.E., Davison, C.L., Culpepper, D.K., Scott P. and
Johnson, K.B., (2011) “MyMediHealth – Designing a next generation system for child-
centered medication management”, Journal of Biomedical Informatics, Vol. 43, No. 5, pp.
27-31.

Park, KeeHyun & Lim, SeungHyeon, (2012) “Construction of a Medication Reminder

Synchronization System based on Data Synchronization”, International Journal of Bio-
Science and Bio-Technology, Vol.4, No. 4, pp1-10.

Prasad, B., (2013) “Social media, health care, and social networking”, Gastrointest
Endosc. Vol. 77,pp 492–495.Prasad.
Zao, J.K., Wang, M.Y., Peihsuan, T. and Liu, J.W.S., (2010) "Smart Phone Based
Medicine In- take Scheduler, Reminder and Monitor", IEEE e-Health Networking
Applications and Services (Healthcom), pp 162 – 168.Zao et al.

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