Edible "Intelligent Pills"

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Posted by kdawson on Tuesday January 20, 2009 @10:51AM from the success-with-heart-failure dept.

Ian Lamont sends along a brief note from the Industry Standard about "intelligent" pills that can help doctors record information about drug dosages, heart rate, respiratory rate, and other metrics. The pills, being developed by Proteus Biomedicals, have "digestible sensors" made out of food products and are activated by stomach fluids. A receiver that is similar to a skin patch picks up the data and can be passed on to a 3G mobile network, and from there to hospitals or doctors' offices. According to the Proteus site, the sensors cost a few cents per pill. The devices, currently in clinical trials, made #8 on Wired's list of the top technology breakthroughs of 2008.

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A boon to compliance monitoring by gd23ka · 2009-01-20 11:07 · Score: 4, Insightful

Oh this is going to be a boon to compliance monitoring. With that kind of 24/7 monitoring
it becomes easy to really lock down a person's life. All kinds of monitoring comes to mind,
from drug use to the absence of using prescribed medications, ingestion of approved or
unapproved foods or even 'unapproved' activities say that raise heartbeat or blood pressure
or again the lack of activities.
1. Re:A boon to compliance monitoring by TubeSteak · 2009-01-20 13:22 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Oh this is going to be a boon to compliance monitoring. With that kind of 24/7 monitoring
  it becomes easy to really lock down a person's life.
  boon to compliance monitoring != an increase in compliance.
  Visit 1.
  Doctor: Patient, you need to do A,B,C
  Patient: Doctor, I understand that I need to do A,B,C
  Reality: XY% of patients do whatever they want
  Visit 2.
  Doctor: The tests show that you aren't making as much progress as you should be.
  Patient: I know, [endless list of excuses] is why I haven't.
  The only way to lock down a person's life is to literally lock it down.
  That's why everyone who can afford it does in-patient therapy/rehab/weight loss (or gain)/etc.
  
  --
  [Fuck Beta]
  o0t!
Re:If it works, it will become part of society. by religious+freak · 2009-01-20 11:09 · Score: 3, Insightful

Um, because clearly students will want to monitor... their heart rates... while they're ... taking tests(?)... and teachers won't want that to happen? Wha...?

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If you can read this... 01110101 01110010 00100000 01100001 00100000 01100111 01100101 01100101 01101011
Re:Problems... by Swizec · 2009-01-20 11:10 · Score: 4, Insightful

Oh you mean like when the computer displayin MRI imagery screws up? Or the computer talking between the hospital and your insurance policy? Or the computer doing traffic lights? Or the computer running your car? Or the computer reading radar data for an air control tower?

Seriously, there ARE other companies out there making software that are not diebold and can make something as simple as a counter ... hell, they can probably make the complex stuff work too since it's obviously worked rather well in the past.
Re:Not what I need by Sicily1918 · 2009-01-20 11:39 · Score: 5, Insightful

Waiting patiently for Mentats, eh?
2 cents to make... by jazcap · 2009-01-20 11:58 · Score: 5, Insightful

200 bucks to buy. That's what I have trouble digesting.