The iPill (haven’t we had enough with the “i” yet?) by the newly acquired Novartis subsidiary Proteus Biomedical. The pill has embedded ingestible sensors which deliver valuable information to physicians. These sensors can track vital signs or even monitor a patients ability to stick to their medication regiment. Information from the pill is transmitted to a receiver placed on, or embedded in the skin of the patient. All this technology is powered by your own body using the energy of your stomach acid. Information from the receiver can then be sent to a patients mobile phone and then onto the Internet for your physician to view. Another key advantage of smart pills is their ability to effectively target specific areas of the stomach and intestine. This results in lower doses of drugs needed and therefore lowered side effects.
With the sale of Proteus Biomedicals, CEO Andrew Thompson will become this much closer to seeing his dream of “better, more affordable and more available” technology in the pills patients take every day. Hopefully, in the coming years. patients suffering from Crohn’s disease, colitis and colon cancer will find more effective treatments via technology.
To learn more about Crohn’s disease go here. [seekingalpha and mobilehealthnews]
Thank you to our loyal reader who suggested this topic and I hope all goes well with you in the future.
[...] at Techmedicus we love our smartpills. This new one has been developed at the University of Florida and is specifically used to track [...]