Smart pills are miniature electronic devices that are shaped and designed to resemble a pharmaceutical capsule. Behind this, the pills perform advanced functions like sensing, imaging and drug delivery. They may include biosensors or image, pH or chemical sensors.
The first smart pill was prescribed as a schizophrenic, bipolar or major depressive disorder drug, and was approved for use in human in 2017 by the US Food and Drug Administration(FDA). Today, some of the leading companies in the smart pills or digestible sensors space are: CapsoVision, Given Imaging, Medimetrics, and Proteus Biomedical.
Digestible sensors
Digestible sensors are devices that are capable of transmitting knowledge about a patient to medical practitioners. This enables doctors to tailor treatment to the patient, as well as, potentially, to other people with related health problems or ailments.
Digestible sensors are instruments that incorporate a wireless sensor system into a non-invasive capsule to perform various functions such as calculating pH, strain, or core body temperature data. The devices are eventually broken down by the body, hence the reference to ‘digestible electronic devices’.
The devices are around the size of a drug pill, made of biocompatible materials that include a power supply, microprocessor, controller, sensors, and other components that enable the system to interact for use in the healthcare industry for disease diagnostics and monitoring. Digestible sensors should be a part of the user’s body, including new ways to interact with them.
To become routine?
Since the digestible sensors, which look like normal drugs, will execute any of the tasks a doctor usually handles in a routine physical and then some, this device may potentially enable a person to swallow a prescription delivered by their doctor and miss their physical.
Digestible sensors will track the bodily processes and wirelessly relay what is going on in your body to another unit, such as your phone or computer, for your own or your doctor’s examination. Since they are non-invasive, this real-time healthcare system has far-reaching consequences, far above what existing sensors would do.
Game-changing?
Digestible sensor technology is the next step after wearable sensors, extending the power of medical technology to the area of illness diagnosis, tracking, and control.
For this reason, the area of “intelligent pills” is undergoing fast-growing development. The application is not without ethical concerns (“bioethics”), in terms of the data collected, ownership, and use. For this reason, developmental scientists will need to work closely with policy makers.
