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Pharmacy On-a-chip Dispenses Drugs Automatically
An anonymous reader writes "The idea is simple — load up a microchip with a whole pharmacy of drugs that are dispensed as needed automatically. The devil has been in the details, since mistakes could kill the patient if, say, a leak developed dumping dangerous cocktails into the bloodstream. This MIT sponsored company, however, claims to have perfected wireless control of a pharmacy-on-a-chip and has just completed the clinical trials to prove it. The test microchip has just 20 doses of a single drug, but their new prototype will house thousands of pin-prick sized drug reservoirs, after which they will seek FDA approval. The elderly (who have complicated drug regime) and soldiers could both benefit from these smart pharmacies-on-a-chip, since drugs can be dispensed even if the patient is unconscious."
Until somebody hacks it. Then one morning 100,000 elderly people don't wake up.
From TFA:
"This avoids the compliance issue completely, and points to a future where you have fully automated drug regimens."
I say this jokingly now, but first they will start using it on psychotic people who will not self administer. Then.... who knows.
I bet the robot insurance premiums will go up as, as robots would next be ripping old folks limbs off to get at their prescription drugs.
"Enjoy what you're doing! If it becomes drudgery, you're doing it wrong!" - Jim Butterfield
Reminds me of the drug glands in Iain M. Banks' Culture series. Any citizen can dose on one of 300 psychoactive substances just by thinking about it.
all your drugs are belong to us!
never bring a twinkie to a food fight.
The issue is that it is not possible to fit huge amounts of drugs inside of these kinds of chips. Of course, there is no need for capsules or such, nor any extra ingredients to make sure that the drug passes into the bloodstream properly as these drugs aren't ingested, they're injected straight into body and as such the drugs do not take as much space as conventional ones. But there is still only a limited amount of space there.
With that in mind, I could definitely see these used in situations where the drugs aren't to be administered often. Like e.g. a diabetic would administer insulin normally as they do now, but that person could have one of these chips implanted for emergency situations where insulin suddenly drops dangerously low.
In the future I could see several implants communicating with one another, like a chip planted near the heart on people with one or another heart condition could send an emergency notice to one of these chips to administer more nitro into the bloodstream. Similarly, I have two friends who are epileptic and they could also possibly benefit from such a monitoring implant if it was implanted near their brains.
Possibly when the chips can draw enough power from the body they could even employ NFC or some other wireless communication method that would send an emergency signal to a nearby monitoring device/mobile phone/etc. and that would place a call for an ambulance.
1. spend more money on sidewalks, crosswalks, walking + bicycle paths, and safe intersections
2. spend less money subsidizing the corn, sugar, and 'value added' goods industries based off of those two carbohydrates
3. pay doctors to stop people from getting diabetes in the first place, instead of paying them to diagnose and treat it.
i realize diabetes is often genetic. but often its lifestyle based. and that lifestyle is not the result of 'free choice', its the result of urban planners and social engineers who believe in profit over everything else.
The self destructive side of me has finally had his prayers answered! Now to find a hack to cut off the portion control....
The eyes of Heisenberg are upon us.
This could have interesting effects given this article.
http://science.slashdot.org/story/12/02/17/004229/optimizing-your-caffeine-intake-with-an-app
Automatic medical system engaged
Morphine administered
Dope people up with the push of a button. What a marvelous idea! Calm the masses.
Great for school teachers. Is that kid in the third row acting up again? Push a button to Ritalin or Adderall him up.
When your drug dispenser runs low, it will pump you up with a last dose that turns you into a zombie, and instructs you to return home for refilling.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
[quote]The elderly who have complicated drug regimes[/quote]
Actually it's the ignorance of 99% of the MD doctors who lack insight into nutrition, that has complicated drug regimes for the elderly since most chronic problems are due to bad nutrition.
Now we just need to integrate apps (like this one: http://science.slashdot.org/story/12/02/17/004229/optimizing-your-caffeine-intake-with-an-app) that run fancy portable gadgets like cell phones, so our computers can automatically give us our drug(s) of choice at specific time intervals, with no need to pop pills, shoot up, smoke a bowl of weed, hit some Salvia, pop open a beer, or crack a can of Coke. A never-ending high that needs no work to keep up the buzz. Just keep your portable device with you and make sure you don't run out of power.
Speaking as a registered nurse, I can assure you that this gadget was thought up by engineers and not by anyone in the medical field.
Somewhat less sophisticated things already exist and are in use: insulin pumps and pain pumps come immediately to mind.
They don't automatically administer a cocktail of drugs, though: in the case of most insulin pumps, they can give what's called a basal rate (a few units of insulin per hour, for example), and the patient checks their blood sugar at meal times and inputs the number, and the pump administers an additional amount based on a programmed sliding scale. I've even heard of a very sophisticated model that can check the blood sugar automatically and give the appropriate amount of insulin, or give none of the blood sugar is already low. But I've never seen one and don't even know if it's even FDA approved and in use yet.
What really gives me pause about this gadget is that many medications that patients normally take every day require clinical judgment rather than just blindly administering them. For example, if a patient's blood pressure is low you definitely don't want to give their scheduled medications that will drop their blood pressure further.
I can see where it would have its places, though, particularly with psychiatric patients who are notoriously unreliable at taking their medication regularly (which results in a vicious cycle of frequent re-admissions to psychiatric units from emergency rooms after encounters with police).
This thing could be very beneficial for a range of medications that do not require clinical judgment for each adminsitration, just appropriate follow-up by the patient's doctor for monitoring and re-evaluation. Absolute reliability is critical, though: if this thing malfunctions people could die.
Seriously though, how many drugs have come out, then 7 years later been re-introduced with an Extended Release, Extra Strength, or a Cooperative form?! I know damn near everything I've ever taken has come out in forms like Extra Strength, or Extended release, or some such sub-variety. This is just another way for drug companies to make the big bucks off of their 33 cent a bottle pharmaceutical concoctions for years to come!
They don't research the next cure for cancer, they research the next bloody extend-your-life-till-you-die-drug. They don't care about human health, they care about human dependency on the drug that THEY MAKE!
THIS is why the United States of America NEEDS a fricken a to z government controlled health coverage. Screw social security, my grandma would LOVE to work a couple of hours each day talking to people and making money. She sits in my living room all day long taking naps, and embroidering stuff, while praying for one of her children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, or great-great-grandchildren to call her! I'm dead serious, one of her great-great-grandchildren just got married.
If one every one of her descendants took a half hour out of every week just to say 'hello' she'd be on cloud nine and busy most of the day. It's somewhat sickening to see her health decline while only the 'regulars' show up or call in for an update.
I'll get off of my soapbox, but think about it gentle-people. Why is there a company out there for automatic delivery of every health-dependency market, yet no single place to go for a true cure. It's not because we can't make it. It's because if the cure comes out, some pharmaceutical squashes it's development and comes out with a suppressant.
Something here seriously reminds me of this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syndicate_(video_game).
But I can't put my finger on it.
This way, I can start the week with some happy pills to get through work and end it friday with a high dose of coffein - totally automated! Amazing!
I just finished reading Transmetropolitan last night. It's very strange to go to bed reading about this subject in science fiction, then wake up the next morning and find out it's actually been developed.
*BEEP BEEP* WARNING. Minor laceration detected *pffthiss* Morphine administered
I was once told that even with medication in pill form, roughly 1/3 of prescriptions are never filled and another 1/3 are filled but the patient never takes them.
As the article states, getting a patient to take drugs which require daily (or multiple times per day) injections is very difficult. For obvious reasons people just don't want to stick themselves with needles, elderly patients forget, some drugs need to be given so frequently the patient has to be wakened every couple of hours, etc.
...called doctors and pharmacists. this couldn't be any worse.
Can I combine it with...
http://science.slashdot.org/story/12/02/17/004229/optimizing-your-caffeine-intake-with-an-app
No need to use a cup anymore! Just caffeine straight to the blood stream! :D
Looking forward to riding the tick...
I keep seeing references to tech in mass effect.
There was a previous article about a gel that help healed bone fractures and other things from weeks into days. :P
Now if you can automatically administer it, soldiers will where suits like in mass effect and wala, the future
Geeks and Rohypnol. Get ready for a whole new generation of ugly smart people.
Or, would anyone miss them?
;)
a whole new industry will pop up of techies who unlock pharma chips for $$$$
would be kinda cool to have a pharmacy at your fingertips though (for your own personal use, not to control others)
yea, lots of people would die at first but overpopulation is already an issue
As soon as this tech is perfected, it should become illegal to prescribe antibiotics to humans via any other method.
That way, we might have a chance of newer antibiotics still being useful after a while.
Isn't this the plot of Syndicate?
Imagine a Beowulf cluster of these!
I really wish people would stop confusing "drug regime" and "drug regimen." A drug regime is what happens in Colombia.
http://sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/20090911