If you take medicine (also called medication), it’s important to know all the medicines you take and how you take them.
Keep an up-to-date list of everything you take and carry the list with you. Show the list every time you see your doctor, nurse, pharmacist, or other healthcare provider. This information can help them give you the best care and even prevent a dangerous medicine situation.
Here you will learn more about keeping a medicine list and why it’s important. You will also find tools and resources about medicine safety.
Why keep a medicine list
Your doctor and healthcare team work to keep correct and up-to-date lists of the medicine you take. But they may not know every medicine you take if you:
- See more than one healthcare provider.
- Go to more than one pharmacy to fill a prescription.
- Are not taking the medicine the way it was prescribed.
If your healthcare team doesn’t know everything you take, something could be missed—like a medicine that is very important to your health or a medicine that doesn’t work well with another.
What to put on a medicine list
Medicines are more than just prescriptions. Here is what to include on your medicine list:
- over-the-counter pain killers, cold medicines, and laxatives.
- vitamins and minerals
- homeopathic, natural, and herbal remedies
- recreational drugs (such as cannabis)
- patches and inhalers
- eye, ear, and nose drops
- creams, lotions, ointments
- samples from your doctor
- anything you may be taking as part of a research study
There are many
medicine tracking tools to help you make and update your list.
