Generic Medicine Finder (Medicine Finder App)

Generic Medicine Finder application is a special tool to find generic alternatives to branded drugs. Users can mention symptoms or problems, and the app can search for a generic medicine for the same. Users can also give the main ingredients and the app can tell which medicine has this ingredient. If users have a name of branded medicine, the app can give its alternative.

Request for Consultation

Objective

The client is one of the pharmaceutical giants in the USA. The objective of this application was to get the cheaper alternative to branded drugs.

The Challenge

Back in 2012, it was challenging to create a custom search screen on Android OS because it was not provided by the platform by default. We had to mimic the look and feel of the screen according to the iPhone contacts screen.

Similarly, for iOS, the Search is different than what is provided out-of-box. We had to implement custom fifiltering to the list on a search to the search bar and an index-based search was required to be implemented. Other challenges include-

For Android

Accordion Layout
The Accordion layout custom component implemented according to the requirements of the project
Custom notification
Notification is been displayed to the user if the drug is set for an alert when available for prescription. Notification provided by Android was not up to the client’s requirement.

For iOS

Accordion Layout
The Accordion layout custom component implemented according to the requirements of the project
iPhone/iPad compatibility
Screens for iPhones have been designed and customers asked to support iPad too.
Custom Footer
Tab bar has been provided by iOS, but to support iPhone and iPad with the footer client required, was not fulfifilled by out-of-box Tab bar. Custom footer is been implemented to support both iPhone and iPad

Our Solution

We implemented a custom component for notifification in the Android app. App icon with the number of notififications is displayed on the notifification bar.
We designed all the screens in a way that they easily support the existing screen resolution for iPhones and iPads.
A custom footer was implemented to support both iPhone and iPad.

Features

Medicine Finder
Search
This application allows the user to search from the list of Generic and Brand name Rx drugs
Drug Details
From the search list, customers can click on any of the drugs to view the details. The details include information like Drug Name, Brand equivalent if the drug is Generic and vice versa, precautions, side effects, etc. These details are presented in accordion layout
Medicine Alert
If the generic version of the selected drug is not available for a prescription then the customer can set an alert on the drug, for which a custom notification will appear when the drug becomes available

Re-fill Reminder
Users can set Refill Reminder for Brand or Generic medication. When the user wants to set a re-fill reminder the user will be taken to the mobile device’s event feature where the user can set the re-fill reminder for the desired medication. This will remind the customer that they have to check for a refill of the medication
FAQs
The customer will be able to see the FAQs about the brand or generic medications. FAQs are also presented in the application in accordion layout
Legal
The customer can also go through the Legal policies of the company with the Legal screen which is presented in accordion layout