OBJECTIVES: Adherence to treatment is an important issue in the management of chronic diseases and an indicator of patients’ ability to self-manage their condition. Some medical devices have been designed to help support patients’ self-management and adherence by including dose-memory and reminder functions. This literature review explored the role and impact of these devices on patients’ adherence to treatment, confidence and disease self-management. METHODS: A search of Medline, Embase and PsycInfo was performed to identify articles published in English from 2003-2013, which studied the effect of devices with memory and/or reminder functions on treatment adherence, confidence and self-management. The main attributes of the abstracts selected for inclusion and full-text review, were summarized. RESULTS: The database searches yielded 940 abstracts. Of the 47 meeting the inclusion criteria, 32 were retained. The articles explored the impact of memory and/or reminder devices on treatment adherence, device usability and users’ (patients, health care professionals (HCPs) and caregivers) relationship and attitudes towards the devices. Devices with memory and/or reminder functions were found to improve self-reported and electronically-monitored treatment adherence in prophylactic medication use (e.g. contraceptives) and a range of chronic diseases including HIV, diabetes and asthma. Memory functions were considered valuable in disease management by patients and HCPs. Of particular value was that memory and/or reminder functions provided dose-history information, enhanced patients’ confidence with, and ability to manage their medication and condition, and helped reduce forgotten or incorrect medication dosing. CONCLUSIONS: The incorporation of memory functions alone and in combination with reminder features in medical devices can improve patient’s adherence, confidence and self-management. This can lead to improvements in disease control and clinical outcomes, thereby offering clinical and economic value. This review highlights the importance of conducting further qualitative and quantitative research in this area to fully understand the value of these types of devices to patients and HCPs.