Myself and my siblings collect my Mam’s medication on a weekly basis. I picked it up today and was handed the usual blister pack. This pack is designed to make taking medication easier, but the last time I picked up the meds, I was informed the blister packs would be going away. While this decision has been overturned late on Friday, at least for now, we already had the perfect solution in place. The TabTime smart tablet dispenser.
Importance of Blister Packs and Medication Management
Managing medication for elderly relatives is one of those responsibilities that sneaks up on you. It starts simple; picking up a weekly prescription. But the stakes are high. Miss a dose of blood pressure medication or take something twice by accident, and you’re looking at real consequences. Sometimes these are dramatic and other times they can be subtle, impacting overall health and wellbeing.
Blister packs exist for good reason. They organise medications by day and time, removing guesswork from what can be a confusing routine. For someone managing multiple prescriptions, which is common for older adults, these packs create structure. Each compartment represents a specific dose at a specific time, which matters enormously when you’re dealing with medications that interact badly if taken incorrectly.
The threat of losing blister pack service highlighted something important: we’d become dependent on a system we didn’t control. Pharmacies face their own pressures, staffing costs, time constraints, regulatory requirements. When they announced the possible discontinuation, we were already looking at options, given even blister packs aren’t always secure enough.
What is TabTime Smart Medication Dispenser?
The TabTime is a circular medication dispenser. Like any pill box, it’s split up into compartments, and you can decide how many doses per day you need.
But while all of that sounds slightly underwhelming, the TabTime has a massive feature. We had spotted that medications were missed once or twice at home, so we wanted better oversight. A little research brought me to the TabTime box.
The TabTime manages the availability of medication, only allowing the user to take the right medication at the right time. Along with mechanically spinning itself to manage the availability of medication, the this pill box makes the most annoying noise to ensure you get up and take your tablets, only stopping after 30 minutes or when the box is tipped out to take tablets.
Honestly, I think this might be my favourite gadget of 2025 simply because of the problem it solves and how incredibly well it performs.
Limits of TabTime
There are some limits of the TabTime. First, it’s not connected. I put some of the success of this down to having supporting tech. We combine this with cameras and plan to add a sensor to the box that lets me know when it’s tipped. This would have been nice out of the box to increase the richness of the medication oversight.
The box is limited to 6 alarms per day across 28 tablet compartments. It can hold up to 18 aspirin sized pills, or 5 x Calichew sized tablets. For us, despite needing quite a few meds, I find it sizeable, but I’m sure certain combinations will be tough.
Early doors, it was sometimes a little unclear where the tablets would come out. The result was once or twice the tablets fell onto the ground, and some tablets can be bloody small. Maybe the white cover would help instead of the clear lid. We are waiting on the tablet tipper to see if that makes it even easier, but overall I can’t believe how much this has improved my Mum’s meds experience. She even loves it herself!
What has amazed me most about this box is how much my Mum promotes it, but how people have reacted when I told them too. It solves a problem and it solves it well.
You can buy the TabTime direct or on Amazon.ie.
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