The Italian Medicines Agency has released the AIFA Medicinali application for mobile devices, designed as a practical and immediate tool for accessing information and receiving notifications on medicines.
"The Agency's initiative - says the Director General, Nicola Magrini - stems from a need reported by the same associations of people with chronic and disabling pathologies who have urged us to develop an app to make them more able to better control possible deficiencies , have handy tools to consult up-to-date information on drugs, receive initial indications on 'What to do when a drug is lacking', alerts on their availability on the market. Clearly, the AIFA Medicinali App provides various support tools for agile consultation and to encourage adherence to therapies through simple reminders that remind you of doses, times, methods of taking and expiry of the drug.
We are also working on another app for prescribing antibiotics that are more effective, safer and at a lower risk of developing resistance”.
Among the various functions, AIFA Medicinali allows you to directly access the AIFA drug database, carry out detailed searches on individual packs, consult the Package Leaflet (FI) and the Summary of Product Characteristics (SPC), view and check the status of marketing of medicines authorized in Italy.
The app allows you to save medicines among your "Favourites", create one or more "lockers" with the most frequently used medicines and set reminders for taking medicines, offering the patient or whoever takes care of them support in correct treatment intake.
Through the app it is possible to be updated on any shortages of the drugs of interest and to keep the expiry of the packages under control, using the notification service.
Finally, the app allows you to insert one or more health cards to have them available at any time on your mobile device.
Released in BETA version, it can be downloaded free of charge from the official Google and Apple stores accessible directly from devices via the respective Google Play Store and App Store apps.
"This app is the example of a virtuous collaboration between institutions and the world of volunteering" underlines Giovanni Battista Pesce, president of the Italian Association against epilepsy, also on behalf of ANFAS and FISH. “It represents an important sign of concrete attention to the issue of chronic pathologies”, concludes Pesce.