It’s dangerously easy to forget to take medication on time, but what if your pills
reminded you to take them? The future is now!
Hey guys, Amy with you on DNews.
Ingestible technology is exactly what is sounds like: tiny sensors embedded in pills made
of metals that are safe to ingest, like copper or magnesium. The coating dissolves in stomach
acid, which activates the metal sensor, starting it’s tracking of your vitals like temperature
and heart rate. It sends that information outside your body via an adhesive patch worn
on your skin straight to your smartphone using bluetooth. And because it’s in your digestive
tract, you pass it just like you would anything else.
There are a few of these devices under development right now, but the closest to launching is
a digital pill from Proteus Digital Health. Sanctioned by the FDA in 2012, the company’s
Ingestible Sensor marks the time of ingestion then monitors how many steps you take, rest
periods, and heart rate, and sends all that data to your smartphone. Another device called
Proteus Discover takes it even further. These sensors are packed inside each pill of a prescription,
logging the time you take each dose along with how it’s working inside your body.
These devices can monitor medication intake and check for dangerous mixes, potentially
preventing complications that stem from mixing certain drugs. And these ingestible devices
are actually in use today.
Both these Proteus products focus on patient monitoring with an emphasis on chronic patients,
because some people don’t always tell their doctors the truth about their habits. Patients
may neglect to mention other drugs they’re on, or lie and say they’re taking their
medication when really they’ve left the bottle unopened on a night stand. These situations
all bring danger of complications leading to more serious -- and more expensive — illnesses.
And these medication-based problems don’t just affect the individuals, they affect the
whole country. The economic cost of medication-based problems, including costs to nursing homes,
hospitals, and ambulance care, total nearly $85 billion annually.
But digital pills aren’t just about monitoring patients. Some ingestible devices are also
used for screening and preventative medicine. PillCam COLON is a miniaturized camera embedded
in a disposable capsule to non-invasively check colon health. It’s the size of a vitamin,
you swallow the pill and as it passes through your digestive system doctors get an up close
up look at the colon, checking for polyps or other early signs of colorectal cancer
without having to do an invasive exam involving sedation or radiation. And it's an FDA-approved
screening method for patients who for whatever reason can’t submit to a regular colonoscopy.
Even though these micro sensors pass through your body harmlessly, the technology does
raise some interesting ethical questions. This comes with the territory when you have
a sensor or camera inside your body transmitting images and information. But those are questions
that will be raised as the technology becomes more widespread.
If swallowing a camera pill sounds daunting, we’ve got the answer on how to properly
swallow pills right here.
So what do you guys think: would you be ok with your medication monitoring you?
Let us know in the comments below and don’t forget to subscribe for more DNews every day
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