Hero: Medication Manager

The hero device is great for scheduled meds. It’s helped me manage meds for 2 people. But it doesn’t work that great for “as needed” meds, and the app is lacking critical features that might make me return the devices soon. Here’s the details: There’s a lot of configurations to dispense multiple doses per day and multiple pills for scheduled doses. But “as needed” PRN meds can’t be controlled well. You can restrict the quantity they can take in a day, and require a passcode to get access to it. But a lot of meds have a time window ( 1 every 6 hours up to 4 times a day etc). The app doesn’t allow you to put the time restriction in to prevent taking meds too soon. You can only restrict it to 4 per day, but they could dispense all 4 at once if they want. It should be configurable to only allow 1 pill to be dispensed every 6 hours, but if us not. Another BIG limitation of the app is that there is no way to get the historical data out. A big reason for using this is to track which pills are being taken when (especially with pRNs like pain meds). But hero said you can’t extract the data, nor can their admins extract it and email it either. So there is no way to get to your data. This is a HUGE problem. Hero, you need to add this feature asap!!

Highly recommend this to anyone, not just older adults. I’m only 44 and my husband is 31 but we both lead very busy lives. I used to try to fill 2 pill boxes each week for both us, but sometimes I would get busy and one of us would run out. He’s not the best about adhering to his medications and if the box wasn’t empty I couldn’t always depend on him to make sure he took his meds. Plus multiple times I’ve made mistakes filling our meds (Which thankfully he always checked before he took them and caught it.) Now I don’t have to worry about it at all! I’m still giving it 5 stars because overall I think the device is worth it. But I think there are a few things that could be improved. -I’ve seen a competitor that can do 12 meds. 10 is probably enough for most, but would be nice to be able to have more meds inside the machine. -I think the medication schedule programming could be improved. It’s not the most user friendly interface. I was able to figure it out pretty easily but I think some older adults might not have the easiest time. I’m thinking a grid system would work better. Setup your meds and the times you take them and then have a grid for scheduling. Have the meds listed on the left and the days of the week on top. Be able to click next to the med under each day to add a scheduled time and tell it how many pills for that day and time of that med. I’m sure there’s other ways to do it but I think having everything on one screen where it’s not so much clicking in and out of menus would be more user friendly. -My other big suggestion is dispensing future dose for a vacation. Yeah you can program it in the app and go the machine and it will open the door to give you access to the pill container so you can manually remove the pills. But then your are having to put them all in one container and then manually pull out pills when it’s time to take them. The way I do it is tell it to dispense a future dose and have it dispense the pills for that date and time. I then pour them into a pill box according to the day and time. I think it would be handy to be able to tell it the vacation schedule in the app, then go to the machine to dispense. Just hit a button and it starts dispensing each day/time dose in the cup so I can just pour it in the pill box and then hit 1 button to have it dispense the next dose. Instead of having to click thru menus multiple times.

10 slots for 10 meds. Have used one for 8 months, without a problem or issue. Excellent customer service, easy app to set up med schedule, and great features to keep the patient from tampering with it. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED- and will save you tons of time vs. those pill dispenser you have to refill….

This has been a life saver. I highly recommend!

My mom would fuss with us telling us she already has taking her meds she would get so confused it would make her mad. She has dementia. Since we started using the Hero she hasn’t missed any of her meds I’m so happy and gladly will to stand be hind them

This is continually needing my attention. I like the fact that it keeps my meds in order but it’s loud and huge takes up a bunch of room. Sometimes I miss does and it takes my too long to figure it out.

The company continues to tell me I must subscribe to continue using but I have subscribed. System not updated by provider.

I really love my hero! It was a gift in 2020 after A breast cancer diagnosis. And every week for pills was irritating me. I wanted what the nurses use. My hubby saw this and brought it! I have been extremely happy every time I use it, 4 years later. If I had one complaint; it needs to hold more than 10 meds. Because I have meds and vitamins in my hero and I need done more spot 🤣. I love my hero!

This hero is great I use to forget with so many medications did I take this pill or not. I would be afraid I might not have taken or should I take another that I might over dose. Since I have the Hero I don’t worry about that no longer. I have told many people about Hero it Is wonderful machine thank you so much Hero. I love the Hero.

I don’t think it, it is the patients fault if the insurance decides not to cover the item anymore when from the beginning and now going over a year. Ten the insurance is like never mind not going to pay for it anymore it now lands on the patient. That is not the patients fault and shouldn’t land on the patient, that is totally taking advantage of the patient!!!! I would have never got the device if I knew this was going to happen. This is such a headache!!!! This is totally not fair!!