Monitoring medication adherence may take a step forward with smartphone apps that require patients to snap 'selfies' before and after they take medication.

Appropriately titled “selfie medicine,” the app requires patients to take medications and then upload video proof to their clinic. This new avenue of remote patient monitoring aims to increase medication adherence.

Additionally, these types of monitoring apps are being researched with funding provided by the National Institute on Drug Abuse to see if patients with opioid addictions could use the app to avoid a relapse.

"If we can keep patients engaged, we can keep them in treatment longer," lead researcher Judith Tsui, of the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle, told the New York Times.

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