@nextdose: A Medication Reminder Made Easy

Sometime over a year ago I wrote @nextdose because I found myself struggling to remember exactly when I had taken migraine tablets or painkillers — the pain would be distracting and sometimes the effects of the headaches makes weird things happen like parallel lines converge and time become even more non-linear than usual.

How it works is very simple: every ten minutes it asks Twitter for any new @mentions of @nextdose, and tries to understand any time periods in those tweets. After that amount of time expires @nextdose wakes up and sends a DM to the user who requested it — so you must be following @nextdose — mentioning any #hashtags which were included in the user's original message. And of course, if you have DMs or messages from @nextdose forwarded to you by SMS, these reminders will be sent to your phone.

Examples:

• @nextdose of #paracetamol in 4 hours
• Taken some #ibuprofen for my headache. @nextdose in 4h
• mustn't forget @nextdose of #thepill in 1 day

Note: @nextdose will only send two DMs to you per reminder you set. The first will be to say, "I will remind you about #hashtags in [however long]". The second will be the actual reminder. @nextdose doesn't keep nagging you continuously — it's up to you to check your watch (to make sure you really can take your next dose of medication!), take them and set another reminder.

Update! As requested by Katie and Julian, @nextdose will now work in "DM stealth mode". Once you're following @nextdose you must send a mention to it asking it to #follow you:

• @nextdose #follow

You'll be sent a DM to confirm that it is following you. From then on you can DM your reminder setting and @nextdose will still reply by DM.

Disclaimer: @nextdose is without warranty, provided "as-is", and I disclaim all liability where possibly lawful. I find this bot useful and entrust my own dosing to it, but you should only use this program as an aide-mémoire: I cannot accept responsibility for your over- or under-dosing or any other mistaeks!