Half tablets, liquids, drops, inhalers and injections

“One” means something different for a tablet, a syrup and a nasal spray. Picking the right form makes every reminder and every line of the report read like the medicine it describes.

The forms

• Tablet — counted in halves: 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2.
• Capsule — counted whole.
• Liquid — in millilitres.
• Drops — counted as drops.
• Spray — counted as sprays.
• Inhaler — counted as puffs.
• Injection — counted as units.
• Patch, cream, sachet, other — patches, applications, sachets, doses.

Half a tablet

Set the amount to 0.5 for that time of day. The reminder says half a tablet, and stock is counted in halves too — twenty tablets at half a tablet a day is forty days, and the app works that out.

Strength versus amount

The strength field describes the medicine (“500 mg”, “100 mcg per puff”); the amount describes the dose (“2 tablets”, “1 puff”). Keeping them apart is what lets you have 5 mg and 10 mg of the same medicine side by side without confusing them.