Medicine Search in mojApteczka — 70 000+ Products from the Polish NFZ Database
How medicine search in mojApteczka checks the Polish National Medicines Register, shows what you already have in your home medicine cabinet, and lets you buy missing items in one tap.
You’re in a pharmacy. Three people ahead of you. The pharmacist asks whether you have Apap at home — the doctor prescribed ibuprofen for the same pain, but paracetamol can help in the meantime. You pull out your phone, open an app that only knows your scanned medicines. Apap isn’t on the list. But that doesn’t mean you don’t have it — maybe you just never scanned it two months ago.
A dead end that now has a way out.
The problem: the app only knows what you’ve shown it
Traditional home medicine cabinet apps have one limitation — they only know the medicines you’ve registered. If you have four packs in the cabinet that never made it into the app, as far as the app is concerned they do not exist.
That works well while you’re at home and have time for inventory. Real life is different:
- You’re in a pharmacy and can’t remember whether you have cough syrup for your child at home
- The doctor prescribed a new medicine — you want to read about it before filling the prescription
- A neighbour asks whether you have blood-pressure tablets from a specific group — she does not want to buy them if you can swap
- You’re packing a travel medicine kit and looking for a medicine you still need to buy
In each of these situations you need access to the full Polish medicine database — not just what’s in your cabinet.
70 000+ medicines — where does that number come from?
mojApteczka pulls data from the public endpoint of NFZ (the Polish National Health Fund), specifically from the National Medicines Register. This is the official database of all medicinal products registered in Poland — prescription-only (Rx) and over-the-counter (OTC) medicines, innovative and generic products, across the full range of pharmaceutical forms (tablets, syrups, drops, ointments, inhalers, suppositories, patches, injections).
The 70 000+ figure includes different variants of the same active ingredient — for example, Apap 500 mg in packs of 12, 24, 50 and 100 counts as four entries, because each pack has its own EAN code and separate registration in the database. That means you can find exactly what you have (or want to buy), not just the general brand name.
Using the NFZ endpoint is free. You don’t pay for database access because it’s public state infrastructure — mojApteczka simply gives you a convenient interface.
How the search works in the app
Search lives directly in the inventory tab, in the “Medicine database” segment (visible as a tab next to “My medicines”). There is no setup:
- Switch the view in inventory to “Medicine database”
- Start typing a name — results update with every keystroke, and you see the first matches after three or four characters
- Scroll the results — each entry shows the brand name, active ingredient (INN), manufacturer, and ATC code
- Pick a medicine — you get a detailed page with full information
- Buy or close — one tap redirects you to an online pharmacy search
No categories, no pre-filters, no complicated parameters. You type a name, you see results. Like Google, but only for medicines registered in Poland — and without ad tracking.
The medicine-cabinet icon — the most important shortcut
The biggest value of search is not that you can see medicines outside your cabinet. It is that you instantly know what you already have at home.
For every result, the app checks your local database in the background. If there’s a match, a medicine-cabinet icon (⊕) appears next to the name. You don’t have to switch tabs, remember the generic name of your branded medicine, or guess.
The comparison is flexible. It handles small spelling variations, diacritics, and case differences — “Nurofen Forte”, “NUROFEN forte” and “nurofen forte” are treated as one and the same. Matching runs on both the active ingredient and the brand name, so if your cabinet has generic paracetamol 500 mg and you’re searching for Apap, both fall into the same group.
Real-world effect: you are standing in the pharmacy, type “apap”, see a result with the medicine-cabinet icon, know you have it, and do not buy a duplicate.
Inline SmPC documentation — full information with every result
If a selected medicine has a corresponding entry in the offline SmPC documentation, all nine clinical sections (indications, dosage, contraindications, interactions, adverse reactions, and so on) appear directly in the detail view — no separate tab to open, no redirect to an external website.
That means you can review a medicine’s clinical information before you buy it. This is particularly useful when:
- The doctor just prescribed something new and you want to check interactions with what you already take
- You’re wondering whether a product is safe in pregnancy or for a child
- You want to know which adverse reactions are common before you start therapy
- You’re comparing two products with the same active ingredient and want to choose the better fit
No need to open Google or the URPL website. Everything happens on the medicine card inside mojApteczka.
Five real-world scenarios
1. Pharmacy queue
You’re buying cough syrup for your child. At the counter, the pharmacist asks whether you already have medicine for fever — the cough could worsen overnight. You type “paracetamol” and see the medicine-cabinet icon on one of the results. You have it, so you do not buy it.
2. Telemedicine prescription
A telemedicine doctor sent you an e-prescription for a medicine you do not recognise. Before filling it, you type the name and open the medicine card. You read the “Contraindications” section in the SmPC — it is not recommended for people with renal impairment, which applies to your mother. Before the pharmacy visit, you talk to the doctor about an alternative.
3. Substitute due to availability
The pharmacy is out of the prescribed medicine. The pharmacist proposes a substitute. You type the substitute’s name and check the “Active ingredient” section — if it’s the same INN as your original, you can switch. If it’s different, medicine substitutes will show the full list of alternatives.
4. Packing a travel medicine kit
You’re heading to the mountains for a week. You type the medicines you usually take one by one. You see what is already in your home medicine cabinet (medicine-cabinet icon) and what you need to buy. A tap opens the online pharmacy search — you order before you leave.
5. Caring for an older relative
Your mother has been prescribed a new medicine after a doctor’s visit. She calls to ask you to “check it”. You type the name and read the dosage section for her age group, making sure the dose is appropriate. The “Drug interactions” section shows whether the new medicine is safe alongside the blood-pressure medicines she already takes.
Search vs. AI recognition — when to use which
| Situation | Feature |
|---|---|
| You physically have the medicine and want to add it to the cabinet | AI recognition — one photo of the package |
| You don’t have the medicine and want information | Medicine search — type the name |
| You want to know whether a medicine is already in the cabinet | Medicine search — medicine-cabinet icon in results |
| You need a substitute for a prescribed medicine | Substitutes or search by active ingredient |
| You need full SmPC documentation | Medicine search — SmPC is inline on every result |
Availability
Medicine search is available in the iOS mobile app and the mojApteczka web version. Search itself needs an internet connection (results come from the NFZ endpoint in real time), but SmPC documentation on the result card works offline if it was synced earlier.
The feature is part of the standard toolset — no separate subscription. Technical details live on the medicine search feature page.
Download mojApteczka from the App Store and start searching the full Polish medicine database instead of browsing forums.
Questions about medicine search or other mojApteczka features? Write to us at kontakt@mojapteczka.pl.
Frequently asked questions
- Does search show medicines that are not in my cabinet?
- Yes — that's the whole point. Until now the app only knew the medicines you had scanned. Search gives you access to the full database of 70 000+ medicinal products registered in Poland, regardless of whether you own them. You can check any medicine before you buy it in a pharmacy.
- Where does the 70 000-medicine database come from?
- Data is pulled from the public NFZ endpoint (the Polish National Medicines Register). It contains all medicinal products registered in Poland — both prescription-only and OTC medicines, in various pharmaceutical forms and strengths. Using the NFZ endpoint costs you nothing.
- How does the app recognise that a medicine is already in my cabinet?
- Every search result is checked against your local database. The comparison handles small spelling variations and diacritics — "Nurofen Forte" and "NUROFEN forte" are matched correctly. When you already have a medicine, a medicine-cabinet icon (⊕) appears next to the name.
- Does search work offline?
- Search itself requires an internet connection because results are pulled from the NFZ endpoint in real time. However, the detailed medicine page with SmPC documentation is available offline — if SmPC data was synced earlier, you can read it without coverage.
- What devices does search run on?
- The feature is available in the mobile app on iOS and in the mojApteczka web version. On iOS it sits in the inventory tab, in the "Medicine database" segment next to "My medicines".