Pill Pals Pharmaceutical Module

Third Party Solutions and Add-Ons
25

Hi Y’all-

I need to ask about a couple things that confuse me.

First, in your Modules advert and a couple other places you use the expression, ‘Are you tired of paying $75 a month just for the privilege of sending a digital prescription?’ Am I correct to believe that particular $75/mo is a reference to the fee we at MI-Squared charge for Ensora’s eRx? As it happens, it is what we charge, but the literal meaning of your wording is that for $75 the only thing the user can do is to transmit an eRx. When in fact, for $75 you can do just about everything one could possibly need to do with eRx.

As explained in other forum posts by the Pill Palls folks, with Pill Pals, for $0.00 what you can do is to transmit an eRx. You might want to edit that misleading statement to prevent misunderstandings.

Second, in your module installation instructions you give some lines of code to add to your composer.json.

Does that mean I need to be using Laravel Composer to manage my OpenEMR installation? If I’m not using Composer can I still use the Pill Pal module?

Thanks for clearing that up!

Best- Harley

26

No, you don’t have to use Laravel Composer.

Or Download from SourceForge.net

    https://sourceforge.net/projects/pill-pals/files/oe-module-pill-pals-1.4.1.zip
28

Ho @juggernautsei , @healthpals

Thanks for your responses!

I asked about the fee just because it happened to match what we charge, so I guess that’s just a sort of validation of our prices, eh? I’m downloading the sourceforge package to play with, will post a review soon.

Best- Harley

29

Yes, your prices are most certainly competitive if your EPCS is charging $75 per month. :slightly_smiling_face:

30

Here is a new development.

You can send prescriptions to Pill Pals through Ensora or any other eRx interface. For Ensora specifically. Use these steps.

In the patient’s chart in the Ensora interface, select add from the pharmacy drop-down.

Enter Pill and state of MO, see below.

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Select Pill Pals from the list.

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We have an app coming soon

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31

Today I was setting up a new clinic, and it hit me that anyone can add Pill Pals to the list of pharmacies in the Pharmacy list. See screenshot below. When we get the mobile app published in the respective app stores. The provider can look up the cost of the medication on this phone and order it to hold for patient.

If you have an android phone and would like an advanced copy of the app. PM me.

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32

Hi Sherwin-

I did get your email with the link to the app- thanks- but when I clicked on it in my phone’s email the app never got past the initial splash screen. My phone is samsung/ android, could that be why? If so then sure, I’d love the advanced/ android version of the app.

Re: entering PillPal into OpenEMR’s Pharmacies module as your img shows, how does that work? If you’re using Ensora does that not block the native OpenEMR Rx functions where the Pharmacy entries would appear?

But that’s academic, I was able to add Pill Pals to the list of the patient’s pharmacies in Ensora by simply searching on the zip code ‘65583’ and it appeared as one of the 3 pharmacies in that zip. So that works fine.

Here’s hoping for the app!
Best- Harley

33

@htuck I did receive your email. I wanted you to try the progressive web app type of app to see if it worked while we are waiting on the submission to the Google Play Store to be approved.

What was learned was this.

A native app cannot simply be “converted” into a PWA, like changing a file format. A PWA is a web application built with web technologies, service workers, caching, responsive UI, browser storage, and installability in mind.

Better wording:

You usually cannot just convert a native mobile app into a PWA. A PWA needs to be designed as a web-based app from the start, especially if you want offline use, push notifications, device access, fast loading, and an app-like experience.

Small correction: a PWA does not always need to be built from absolute zero, but the architecture often has to be rebuilt or heavily refactored. The frontend, offline logic, authentication flow, storage, and device features need to be planned differently from a native iOS or Android app.

The second question that was answered was this.

A PWA does not have the same access to the device camera and other hardware like a native app does:

This is generally true, although the gap has narrowed significantly in recent years.

A native app has direct access to virtually everything the operating system exposes, including:

  • Background services

  • Bluetooth

  • NFC

  • Contacts

  • Calendars

  • SMS

  • Biometric authentication

  • Advanced camera controls

  • Filesystem access

  • Push notifications with fewer restrictions

  • Sensors (accelerometer, gyroscope, etc.)

A PWA can access some of these features through browser APIs, but support varies by browser and operating system. For example:

  • Camera access: Usually yes

  • GPS/location: Usually yes

  • Microphone: Usually yes

  • Offline storage: Usually yes

  • Push notifications: Limited on some platforms

  • Bluetooth: Limited browser support

  • NFC: Limited browser support

  • Contacts: Limited or unavailable

  • SMS: Not direct access

  • Background processing: More restricted

  • Full filesystem access: More restricted

The biggest issue is not necessarily the camera itself. Modern PWAs can often scan barcodes, take photos, and upload documents. The real challenge is that PWAs are dependent on what the browser allows, while native apps are dependent on what the operating system allows.

For healthcare applications such as the patient apps and EHR-related projects you’ve discussed before, native apps still have advantages when you need reliable:

  • Camera document capture

  • Background synchronization

  • Push notifications

  • Biometric login

  • Integration with other device apps

  • Consistent behavior across iPhone and Android

That’s why many companies start with a PWA for broad accessibility but eventually build native iOS and Android apps when they need deeper device integration or a more polished mobile experience.

We will have to pursue the building of the PWA as a separate project in parallel to the native app. For now, your contribution helped us in our quest.

And we thank you.

34

The screenshot that I provided changes nothing about Ensora. It is no different than any other pharmacy selection.

Thanks for sharing another way to add Pill Pals as patients pharmacy.

35

The app is now live in the Google Play Store.

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36

The app is truly awesome because it accentuates our Manufacturer Match™ program. Pill Pals is one of the few Pharmacies that is willing to keep patients on the same drug manufacturer for every fill. When patients type in their medication on the app, they are usually presented with more than one brand option, because we carry various brands of the same drug.

The prescriber can relax, knowing that we can keep them on the same brand. The patient and their caregivers can relax, knowing that they don’t have to update the images on their medication reminder app, or pill box. It’s a win win for everyone in the healthcare ecosystem.

You can learn more about Manufacturer Match™ by reaching out to @juggernautsei .

37

watching this chat for update for openemr 8.3

38

I just started the refactor for v8. I should have it out in the next week or two. @nefesh

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