Are you also the kind of person who forgets to take your medication when you get busy?
Anyway, my mom's blood pressure pills often get skipped, and my dad's diabetes medication is even more hit-or-miss—three days fishing, two days drying the net, as they say. Every time they go for a follow-up at the hospital, the doctor sighs. Later, I discovered this skill called medication-support, which is actually a module in the healthclaw project. This project emphasizes local-first and privacy security—in simple terms, your medication data doesn't get uploaded to any cloud; it all stays on your own computer or home server.
At first, I hesitated: Would installation be troublesome? But when I actually tried it, it turned out to be much simpler than I imagined. You only need one command:
npx skills add https://github.com/vlbandara/healthclaw --skill medication-support, then start the Nanobot service, and the web interface appears. What I personally like most is that it supports home multi-tenancy, meaning each family member has their own account, and the data is completely isolated. Mom can't see Dad's medication records, but as an administrator, I can view the overall situation in the background and prevent them from taking the wrong medicine.
The core features are actually quite thoughtful
Let's start with medication reminders. You can add any drug name, dosage, and taking time. For example, "Metformin 0.5g after breakfast," and it will gently pop up a reminder at the right time. Unlike some apps that keep vibrating endlessly, this skill's design philosophy is "calm companion"—it never bothers you when you don't want to be disturbed, but it won't miss the reminder when it's needed. I deployed it on an old Raspberry Pi, running 24/7, accessible from my phone browser anytime.
The medication recording feature is also very practical. After each dose, you can click "I have taken it," and the system automatically logs the time and dosage. You can also manually note how you feel and whether there are any side effects. For example, if Mom says she feels dizzy, I can add a note for her. This data can be exported as CSV, which is convenient to show to the doctor. The doctor said this is far better than human memory because people always forget or misremember things.
There's also a feature I find particularly great: drug interaction check. My dad takes several medications at the same time, and I've always been worried about conflicts. This skill has a built-in small knowledge base. When you add two or more drugs, it will prompt possible interactions. For example, if he takes warfarin and adds aspirin, the system immediately pops up a warning: "Combined use may increase the risk of bleeding." Although it cannot replace a doctor's advice, it's very useful as a daily reference.
Integrating with wearable devices makes it even more interesting
This skill also supports optional Open Wearables integration. I bought my mom a Xiaomi band (which supports open protocols). After connecting, the skill automatically pulls heart rate, step count, and sleep data. Then it correlates them with her medication log—for instance, whether there is any abnormality in heart rate after taking a certain drug, all at a glance. However, this feature requires additional configuration. The tutorial explains it very clearly, so just follow the steps.
Notes:
- First, the data is completely stored locally. If you change devices or your hard drive fails, remember to back up the database file regularly.
- Second, under multi-tenant mode, regular members can only see their own data; administrators can view everyone's data but cannot modify others' records. This design is quite secure.
- Third, the drug interaction check is based on the built-in library and may not be comprehensive. For important situations, be sure to consult a doctor.
- Fourth, it is recommended to run the environment on Linux or macOS; Windows might have some command line compatibility issues.
A few tips for practical use
First, create users for each family member, then assign medications separately. It's advisable to use nicknames instead of real names to protect privacy.
Reminder intervals can be customized. I set it to remind 15 minutes before taking medication, then repeat every 5 minutes until the dose is confirmed taken.
If you have elderly family members who are not good with phones, you can open the web interface on a tablet and set it to large font mode.
When pairing with wearable devices like Xiaomi or Apple Watch, remember to enable the device's open data interface permissions. Refer to the README in the skill directory for details.
To be honest, what I'm most satisfied with after using it is that there are no ads, no messy community feeds—it just cleanly handles medication management. For families dealing with chronic diseases, this is simply a lifesaver. Since my parents started using it, the missed dose rate has decreased by at least 80%.
If you're also looking for a reliable, privacy-protecting medication reminder tool, give this skill a try. Installation is just one command, and it takes care of the rest.
