Slashdot Mirror
Microchip Could Replace Pills
webhat writes "BBC News reports in an article that a microchip implanted in your body may be the end of swallowing pills. A microchip of a centimeter long was created with a sandwich coating of a drug (heparin) and a slow biodegrading polymer. As the polymer layer degrades the drug is released into the system."
Ugh. The article is incredibly terse and glosses right over internal trauma. Sure, if all is peachy-perfect, but what happens when you're in an accident and your little chip gets smashed in the process, instantly releasing the entire contained dosages into your bloodstream. Simply fabulous. You'd think people would have learned from silicon, and even from the occasional problems with the in-your-arm-time-release-birth-control products. Is anyone really willing to make these tradeoffs? [Sure, go ahead, argue that this could be useful for non-trivial drugs for which massive dosages wouldn't matter.....if there is a drug you /should/ be taking every day, there should also be a lifestyle change that should reflect that....]
disclaimer: both my parents are pharmacists. i read too much of their continuing ed crud.
When in doubt, parenthesize. At the very least it will let some poor schmuck bounce on the % key in vi. (Larry Wall)
This could be extremely useful in treating AIDS and tuberculosis in the 3rd world. Apart from the problems of many 3rd world people in ensuring that drugs are taken continuously, there is the risk that they will sell drugs or have them stolen by other sufferers who are not being treated. I do not know how dosage would stack up against feasibility, but the principle looks sound. There's also the possibility of slowly releasing chemotherapy right into tumors.
Obviously any new technology is going to have risks, but if people are going to die of something without treatment, and existing means of delivery are unreliable or worse, surely this has to be worth pursuing.
Panurge has posted for the last time. Thanks for the positive moderations.
As a doc, I say this would be wonderful.
Taking multiple pills a day can really decrease one's quality of life. Taking medicines with different schedules can be impossible for even the smartest of patients.
Medicine has advanced that we can really improve quality of life (and usually length of life) for the majority of diseases...
However one of the biggest problems we face is getting the patient to actually take his/her medications!
I can see this plan taking the following course:
1. Doc visit and prescription of an oral medication(s)
2. Patient returns for follow-up, adjustment of dosing, and screening for side effects
3. Repeat step 2 until patient is at steady state
4. Schedule implant
5. Continue to adjust doses as needed.
Of course, the next logical steps are chips that release medicines based on the detection of biological markers. If it detects the pro-BNP level is elevated... it releases some diuretics. If it detects the serum glucose is too high, it releases some insulin.
I know how much medicine has changed in just my years of practice... this is just one more advance that we will one day wonder how we lived without.
Davak