It is clinic morning. The anticoagulation nurse asks for your last few INR readings and what you have taken each evening since the dose last changed. You know the answers are somewhere: a booklet in the kitchen drawer, a photo of a letter, a note on your phone, and a reading your partner jotted on the back of an envelope.

If you or someone you care for takes warfarin or another medicine that needs regular INR checks, the routine has two halves. Your clinic or anticoagulation service sets the target and the dose. The household's job is to take what was prescribed, when it was prescribed, and keep a clear record of what actually happened. Medication Timer is a software app for that second half. It keeps the record and the reminders. It does not decide anything about your treatment.

World Thrombosis Day falls on Tuesday 13 October, and this year's campaign puts women's health and blood clot risk in focus. It is also a good prompt to tidy the record you bring to your next appointment.

What your clinic decides, and what the log is for

Your clinic, GP or anticoagulation service decides your target range, your dose and how often you test. Most people receive those instructions in a booklet, a letter or a clinic portal, and they can change after any reading.

A home log does not change any of that. Medication Timer will not tell you whether a reading is good or bad, and it will never suggest what to take next. If a reading worries you, or you are unsure what your instructions mean, contact your clinic or pharmacist.

What the log does is answer the practical questions quickly and the same way every time: when was the last reading, what was it, and was the evening dose taken as instructed?

What a useful INR log includes

Keep each entry short and factual. A helpful household log usually records:

• The reading, with its date and time. Note whether it came from a home meter or a clinic or lab test if your clinic asks.
• The dose actually taken each day, exactly as your clinic instructed, not what you meant to take.
• The date your instructions changed, so the timeline shows which readings came before and after.
• Anything your clinic has asked you to mention, such as a missed dose, a new medicine or a stretch of being unwell.

The goal is a calm timeline, not a clinical project. For more on building the habit, see our guide to tracking recurring health readings at home.

Setting it up in Medication Timer

Add the INR reading for the right person

Open Family, choose the family member, and enable INR under Health readings. When you turn on a reminder, choose the cadence that matches the testing schedule your clinic gave you: Daily, Weekly on chosen weekdays, Monthly, or Custom (every so many days, weeks or months), plus a clock time and a first due date. Reminders are mobile notifications that open Today when they fire.

If your clinic has given you a target range, you can enter the low and high values on the reading so the record matches your paperwork. Setting targets is available on Free. The app stores the numbers you enter. It does not choose them, and it does not tell you what a reading means.

If you test a little early, the app may ask whether to count the reading as due for the upcoming slot or keep the original due day, so the next reminder does not fire unnecessarily.

Add the anticoagulant as a dose routine

Add the medicine under Medications, then add a dose routine for it under Family at the time your clinic or pharmacist told you to take it. Because these doses are often adjusted, in my own setup I count each warfarin dose in milligrams, so the app asks for the amount each time it is marked taken. My post-op heart and warfarin walkthrough shows that setup step by step.

When your clinic changes the dose, you simply record the new amount as you take it. When they change the timing, edit the routine to match.

Keep the other daily medicines beside it

Blood pressure tablets, heart medicines and anything else on a schedule can sit beside the INR reading as their own routines. Today shows each member's routines, logged doses and due or completed readings for the selected day, with taken, missed or upcoming states. Our guide on how to use medication routines covers the schedule options in detail.

On the Free plan, each family member can have up to three combined dose routines and enabled health readings, with a household maximum of twelve. An INR reading plus one anticoagulant routine uses two of those three. Family Care removes the caps if your care plan needs more.

Clinic day: bring the record, not your memory

Before the appointment, move the date strip on Today back through the past few days. On Free you get full detail for the last three local calendar days.

With Family Care, you get unlimited history on Today, longer-range reading trends, and family reports. A report covers one family member and a date range you choose, and can bring together scheduled doses taken versus missed or skipped, health readings such as INR, and care notes. On the web you can print a report or save it as a PDF from your browser. See medical summary and reports for what a report includes.

A report reflects what was logged, not what was intended, so the habit of logging as you go is what makes clinic day easier. Use it to show your clinician the timeline. Leave the interpretation to them.

When someone else helps

Many INR routines are shared: an adult child who checks in on a parent, or a partner who reminds you on busy evenings. With Family Care, each caregiver signs in with their own account and works from the same family data, including routines and health readings. When one person logs or skips a shared reading, the matching reminder clears on the other phones on a best-effort basis (iOS can delay this, and opening the app syncs it). Shared timer cards and report activity also show who logged a dose when that information is available.

Only invite people who are authorised to help with that person's care. Our caregiver sharing setup guide walks through the invite.

When a cold or flu lands on top of the routine

Winter bugs do not pause long-term medicines. For a short illness, start a Care session for that family member. Care keeps as-needed timers, temperatures and symptoms on one timeline for the episode, separate from the long-term routine, and you can add a note to record what a GP or pharmacist told you. When they are well again, end the session and Today goes back to normal.

If your clinic has asked to hear about illness or new medicines, the Care timeline gives you the dates without guesswork.

A five-minute tidy-up for World Thrombosis Day

• Check the INR reading is enabled for the right person, with a reminder that matches the testing schedule your clinic gave you.
• Check any target values on the reading match your latest clinic paperwork.
• Check the anticoagulant routine time matches your current instructions.
• Keep the clinic's latest written instructions where you can find them. The app is the record; the clinic's instructions are the plan.
• If someone else helps, decide together who logs what.

Medication Timer is free to start on iPhone, Android and the web. Family Care pricing is shown in the app store for your region.

Questions? Browse the help centre or contact support from Profile in the app.