Pills With Digestible Microchips Approved By US Drug Agency

ananyo writes "Digestible microchips embedded in drugs may soon tell doctors whether a patient is taking their medications as prescribed. The 'digital pills' are the first ingestible devices approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The pills contain a sand-particle sized sensor, consisting of a minute silicon chip containing trace amounts of magnesium and copper. When swallowed, it generates a slight voltage in response to digestive juices, which conveys a signal to the surface of a person's skin where a patch then relays the information to a mobile phone belonging to a healthcare-provider. Currently, the FDA, and the analogous regulatory agency in Europe have only approved the device based on studies showing its safety and efficacy when implanted in placebo pills. But Proteus Digital Health, the manufacturer, hopes to have the device approved within other drugs in the near future."

Comments

Science Marches On

[Bananatree3]

first we have eye implants powered by lasers, and now this. Science Marches On, tricorders are inevitable.

Re:Science Marches On

[mcgrew]

I have an eye implant powered by my eye's focusing muscles. I'm 60 and have better than 20/20 vision at all distances! Science (and technology) do indeed march on. BTW, my implant is the favorite of all devices I own; I used to be 20/400 before the implant.

And the tricorders are coming closer and closer as welll. Now if they'd invent a matter replicator...

Re:Science Marches On

[slashmydots]

Also, TFA says they even come in sour cream and onion flavor! Now those are some good chips!

Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[crazyjj]

“About half of all people don’t take medications like they’re supposed to,” says Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Translational Science Institute in La Jolla,California. “This device could be a solution to that problem, so that doctors can know when to rev up a patient’s medication adherence.”

You know, I kind of like the idea of deciding for myself what medication I take and when. The idea of my doctor trying to make me ingest a sensor like I'm some sort of medical prisoner is more than a little creepy to me. What's next, is he going to give me forced ball-shock treatments if I refuse to eat healthy?

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[Anonymous Coward]

It definitely makes it a lot easier to force-sedate a populous, as well. That's something we should be afraid of.

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[Kenja]

The issue is that a doctor cant treat you if you dont take your meds and patients often dont know if they have or not due to mental condition or as part of drugs side effects. This can be a major issue when you cant remember if you took the yellow pill today or not and taking another could kill you while skipping a day could cause a relapse of your condition. If on the other hand you dont want your doctor to treat you (as you indicate), then simply dont go to one.

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[NFN_NLN]

You know, I kind of like the idea of deciding for myself what medication I take and when. The idea of my doctor trying to make me ingest a sensor like I'm some sort of medical prisoner is more than a little creepy to me. What's next, is he going to give me forced ball-shock treatments if I refuse to eat healthy?

You are exactly the reason we need devices like this. Either take the medication as prescribed OR don't take any medication. But stop selectively breeding resistant bacteria that impact EVERYONE else.

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[ganjadude]

I see this as more of a way to check if people are abusing drugs under the disguise of being good for the patient. take 2 pain killers instead of one? cops knock on your door. /tinfoil

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[Kenja]

Well, to expand on that it could be used to make sure that they are actually taking their pain killers rather then reselling them. Right now this is done through a serial number on the pill being linked to the patients finger print.

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[Anonymous Coward]

An interesting theory, but most medication isn't to fight bacteria, and this medication doesn't solve that problem at all.

This medication will be useful for oldsters who need medication but aren't under the direct supervision of a nurse or other care giver.

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[Anonymous Coward]

i doubt they are interested in relatively cheap antibiotics. what they're really after is another narcotic pain reliever patent.

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't forget that they can already arrest tuberculosis patient for not taking their meds

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[Dunbal]

Note that your physician is not behind this, it's the drug companies. Why? Because the more you "comply" with your medication, the more pills they sell. Good physicians have long ago given up the paternalistic doctor model, and now we recognize that patients are autonomous and have the right to not comply with treatment if that is their wish. Of course we have to make sure they understand the consequences of not taking the pills, as well as the consequences of taking the pills. But we cannot actually "force" a patient to take medication. It's not our decision.

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[Anonymous Coward]

You should talk to your doctor instead of being passive-aggressive like that.

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[Anonymous Coward]

A correct application of the delicate balance between the rights of the individual and of society. If you choose not to take medication then you must submit to quarantine.

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[Anonymous Coward]

That's profoundly stupid, even by tinfoil-hat standards. If you were going to forcibly medicate everyone, you'd just go around and do it or treat the air/water/food. You wouldn't spend money on microchip-laced pills, trust people to take them on their own (daily, most likely), and then have them come back in regularly to confirm that they did. Just about any delivery system you can imagine is more practical and effective than giving everyone a bottle of pills and saying "You better take all of these and come back in a month, or else!"

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[MightyYar]

You will still have the option of using a doctor that doesn't use this method, if you can find one.

The simple fact is that this can give a doctor better data, and better data is usually not a bad thing. Doctors can and should fire patients, just as patients can find a new doctor. In Pain Management practice, they make people pee into a cup to prove that they are taking - rather than selling - their pain meds.

In addition to helping doctors treat their patients who think they have an MD, I could see this helping with the mentally ill. Prior to Carter, the mentally ill were basically tucked away out of sight in asylums. Then they invented effective anti-psychotic medication, and so it became possible to treat the mentally ill. Of course, a treated mentally ill person does not need to be tucked away in an asylum anymore, so they were released... and a significant portion stopped taking their medication. A tool like this would be a good way to balance society's interests in not having a bunch of untreated psychotics living on the city streets with the individual rights of the mentally ill.

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[h4rr4r]

I would love this. Not taking my medicine leaves me in a state where I forget to take my medicine. I have my phone set to alert me to take it. This would be a big help.

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[Dunbal]

Yeah, vets have absolutely nothing to do with bacterial resistance. I mean, those chickens need to be treated with vancomycin - absolutely all of them, as a preventative measure. Surely that has much less impact on bacterial resistance than Grand-pa who forgot to complete his pills for pseudo-membranous colitis because he felt better after a day.

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[MightyYar]

They also make the patients take a urine test. If there are no pain meds in your urine, you can't get more pills.

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[CanHasDIY]

You know, I kind of like the idea of deciding for myself what medication I take and when. The idea of my doctor trying to make me ingest a sensor like I'm some sort of medical prisoner is more than a little creepy to me. What's next, is he going to give me forced ball-shock treatments if I refuse to eat healthy?

You are exactly the reason we need devices like this. Either take the medication as prescribed OR don't take any medication. But stop selectively breeding resistant bacteria that impact EVERYONE else.

Yes, out patients choosing their own drug schedule for narcotics explains why the vast majority of antibiotic resistant strains originate from within medical facilities...

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[Anonymous Coward]

Have children if you want to be a parent, you totalitarian thinking do-gooder !

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[CanHasDIY]

so that doctors can... rev up a patient’s medication adherence.

Edited to emphasize the truly frightening part of this statement...

So, my health decision are no longer my decisions to make? Yea, just try and force feed me some of Big Pharma's dope, you'll be pulling back bloody stumps...

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[Anonymous Coward]

Do it or you will lose your Obama Care, why should the rest of us pay for your medical when you can't get better as prescribed? Moron!

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[Flaming Babies]

“About half of all people don’t take medications like they’re supposed to,” says Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Translational Science Institute in La Jolla,California. “This device could be a solution to that problem, so that doctors can know when to rev up a patient’s medication adherence.”

You know, I kind of like the idea of deciding for myself what medication I take and when. The idea of my doctor trying to make me ingest a sensor like I'm some sort of medical prisoner is more than a little creepy to me. What's next, is he going to give me forced ball-shock treatments if I refuse to eat healthy?

Trust your doctor or don't. I pay mine because I value his knowledge. The dosage he recommends is what I take. (It's not uncommon for that recommendation to be 'as needed') I think this is a silly idea...and based more on preventing the sharing/selling of medication, but I don't think there's anything creepy medically about it.

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[h4rr4r]

Sure they are, but then that DR may not want you as a patient anymore.

This is going to be used for the elderly and those who have medicine without which is it hard or impossible to remember to take or why to take your medicine. Think those on drugs that impact concentration, memory or anti-psychotics.

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[X0563511]

Totally unrelated. One does not effect the other. Just because feeding livestock antibiotics is a problem doesn't mean half-finished antibiotic courses are not.

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[X0563511]

Why not just set up a recurring to-do list? Alarm goes off, take your pill and check the box. Then, if you forget you took it an hour later, you can look for your checkmark.

Whether you do this all with your phone or with a good old fashioned clipboard and watch, is up to you.

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[X0563511]

You went to the doctor, and he prescribed the fix. TAKE THE FUCKING MEDICINE OR DONT GO AT ALL.

We don't need assholes like you deciding they know better than a PhD. Half-course antibiotics breed shit like MRSI.

Pain meds are different, I'll admit that... but you didn't specify what you're talking about and if you ahve that kind of attitude for one medication, you likely have it for another.

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[h4rr4r]

This is what I do. Having the checklist part automated would be handy.

Who in the hell is going to carry around a clipboard and watch? How would a watch even help here? Unless it has multiple alarms, I won't even know to look at the damn thing.

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[Anonymous Coward]

Is that a chicken and the egg analogy??

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[Anonymous Coward]

Fuck your strawman argument!

PROTIP: Your doctor does NOT know you better than yourself. Unless you're retarded. In fact, 99% of the time I've seen doctors make horrible decisions (mostly giving symptom ignorers instead of fixing or even finding the actual cause), and when they do correct ones, they are obvious to everyone with half a brain. (Like antibiotics against bacteria. Which every idiot knows you take until the end. [Apparently except for the retards around you.])

Doctors are strongly encouraged to overdose like crazy. And give what the pharma companies make the most money with. Not what's effective. Nobody gives a fuck about that.
I've seen the bullshit they gave to my grandma. She just got more sick from that shit. The diagnose was just idiotic. Until she chose her own dosage, and her own medication, and *then* got better!

That's an observed fact. It's you who's the delusional blindly believing idiot.

I'm sorry, but even though you doctors have a extreme god complex, you are not even remotely gods. Hell, most of the time, you're only barely competent at all.

And I know why: Because your education is based on memorizing thousands of pages of information, and stuffing yourselves with that so much, that you got no time to think or even understand the whole stuff. And sadly, you're also graded on what is basically your capability to be a walking USB stick.

Of course you're assuming everyone is completely retarded, (except apparently the doctors), and so you advocate blind belief for everyone.

Sorry. We're not a church.

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[Sir_Sri]

You know, I kind of like the idea of deciding for myself what medication I take and when

Anyone who knows anything about evolution disagrees with you. Or medicine for that matter. If you were qualified to safely decide what drugs you could stick in your body, in what doses, and for how long we wouldn't need pharmacists, or doctors.

People with your attitude have been deciding they feel better and no longer need to take medications have been breeding drug resistant diseases. Thanks. Just what we needed.

But that takes us to your second point.

some sort of medical prisoner

This is, believe it or not, both a very serious problem and one of the two drivers behind something like this. If you're bipolar, or schizophrenic or any of a slew of various psychiatric conditions you could very well pose a serious danger to yourself or the general public when off your meds. Good thing those people have the freedom to decide when to take medication and when not to just like you right? There are lots of people who, as a condition of release from various legal proceedings have to take meds, but how do you verify? That means they're an expensive burden to monitor, the cheaper you can make that monitoring the better it is for everyone. Being able to verify for less money, and eventually remotely gives them much more capacity for normal function in society and independence.

The second one, is for people who have either lost some of their minds and can't remember if they've taken their medications, or if they're being monitored by staff, and you don't want a mixup. Usually the same group of people say in old folks homes of varying degrees. This is a serious problem, because people in that situation could have very serious complications if they double dose, or miss a dose. In the routine of caring for someone 365 days a year, for years, even a 0.1% chance of making a mistake can be very serious.

What's next, is he going to give me forced ball-shock treatments

No, if only ball-shock treatments cured stupid. Though this would help your insurer (including the government as an insurer in civilized countries) track when you're not taking your drugs, and if they might have a street value they can arrest you for deciding you wanted cash in your pocket more than you wanted to finish the medications prescribed, that they paid for. It means they can stop prescribing certain drugs (e.g. painkillers) if you aren't using them, and it means they can monitor your behaviour and stop you being an idiot and trying to breed drug resistant diseases.

The Wikipedia article on Compliance medicine even has this helpful blurb:
The failure to complete treatment regimens as prescribed has significant negative health impacts worldwide.[1] Examples of the rate and consequences of non-compliance for selected medical disorders is as follows:
Diabetes non-compliance (98% in US) is the principal cause of complications related to diabetes including nerve damage and kidney failure
Hypertension non-compliance (93% in US, 70% in UK) is the main cause of uncontrolled hypertension-associated heart attack and stroke
Asthma non-compliance (28-70% worldwide) increase the risk of severe asthma attacks requiring hospitalization

And two of those are conditions where you directly and immediately impact the state of your condition on a regular basis. With Diabetes of course it comes down to what you eat, and Asthma the air you're breathing (which you may not have control over, but if you drive into a smoggy area for example you should be reasonably aware that it's going to immediately aggravate your condition).

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[Sir_Sri]

but aren't under the direct supervision of a nurse or other care giver.

or who are, and they need to make sure that the next shift doesn't accidentally double dose, or miss a dose.

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[fm6]

I think your doctor needs to know whether you're taking your pills. When he asks, "Are you taking your pills?" do you answer "none of your business"? If you don't trust your doctor with that level of information, why even see him?

And for many patients, it's not even a privacy issue. Older patients with memory problems, for example.

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[Jawnn]

You know, I kind of like the idea of deciding for myself what medication I take and when. The idea of my doctor trying to make me ingest a sensor like I'm some sort of medical prisoner is more than a little creepy to me.

You should wish that it was only your doctor keeping tabs on your compliance with his prescribed regimen. The real consumer for this data will be your insurance carrier. "Failure to comply" with prescribed treatment is grounds for termination of benefits.

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[X0563511]

Well, some people have so many meds they can't well carry them around, so the clipboard would stay with the meds. The watch you would presumably wear.

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[ceoyoyo]

That's great. From a public health perspective, if you want to decide for yourself that you've had enough of your antibiotics, perhaps you shouldn't get them next time. Or if you have TB and aren't following the treatment schedule you should probably be quarantined. Or if you've agreed to the terms of a clinical trial and aren't following the medication schedule you should be bounced out of it.

If you don't want to take your heart medication, nobody cares.

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[X0563511]

Nope. Straw Man perhaps, but I'm no expert at naming the fallacy. I just know that there's one there.

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[Lurker2288]

To be fair, there are plenty of medications a person might choose not to take as prescribed apart from antibiotics, but on the whole I agree with you. If there is some reason why you can't or aren't willing to take your medication as prescribed, then you should speak to your doctor about that and identify a course of treatment you are willing to comply with. Nonadherence to prescriptions is a major source of reduction in patient well-being and a drive of increased healthcare costs. If a simple technological solution to that is available, why not use it?

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[ceoyoyo]

It's not a silly idea, in the right context. Companies running drug trials will be all over this. Noncompliance is a huge problem and, worse, it's currently a nearly unmeasureable problem.

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[geminidomino]

Who in the hell is going to carry around a clipboard and watch?

What is this, 1912? The electronic gagetry to replace the "clipboard and watch" has been around so long that you get them for $20 at the checkout isle in the goddamn grocery store, FFS.

And considering that we're talking about a friggin' dial-home pill here, one can't really play the luddite card.

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[Dunbal]

Not unrelated at all. In fact there have been many articles published on the topic.

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[jklovanc]

There are a few issues with your tin foil hat attitude;
1. The system only works if there is an external sensor and it is turned on. If you don't want to have your Doctor monitor you then turn the sensor off.
2. There are many people who forget to take their meds some times. Having an alarm go off every time I am supposed to take my meds is annoying if I have already done it. To me it would be useful to remind me when I forget.
3. You "what's next" scenario is another invalid slippery slope argument. Sensors in pills have nothing to do with shock treatment; one definitely does not lead to the other
4. It's not all about you. There are people in this world who need reminders, me for one, to take their medications. These people should not have a valuable tool denied them just because you don't like it. If you don't like it then don't use it.

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[dullblade]

Actually, you will probably either pay more for medical insurance, or have it cancelled. As people (below) have pointed out, sometimes this tech could be a boon, like for those who are too sick or lack the ability to keep track of medications. On the other hand, given your rationality, you are the only one who can judge the cost / benefit on taking a drug which is causing side effects.

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[aaaaaaargh!]

Reminds me of this.

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[Aphonia]

Most medical doctors are MD's (or something similar), not PhD's. If your local PhD in philosophy is prescribing you pills, chances are you shouldn't take them.

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[Penurious Penguin]

So then, I hope you are only advocating the use of these chips exclusively in antibiotics, no? I might be able to remain civil if that's the case, but otherwise, you're mad. I'm just so sure that every Doctor who's ever prescribed Prozac or Ritalin to a child chose the perfect, ideal dose! Your methods should work great with pain-killers too. Yeah. Well, I sincerely hope you get a prescription for a strong laxative someday, someday when fascism has finally overtaken America and meds are no longer optional.

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[h4rr4r]

I just use my smartphone, costs a little more than $20, but it works.

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[daenris]

I wish there was a mod crazy option. You really think that any and every pharmacy that a person might get their prescription filled at -- most of which are commercial entities without ties to a hospital -- are going to individually put serial numbers on pills that link them to the person getting the prescription filled? I'll give you a hint, I've worked at a pharmacy and they definitely do not do this. Let alone track fingerprints. There is a bottle filled with pain killers on the shelf. When a prescription comes in, the pharmacist or pharmacy tech grabs that bottle, and counts out the number of pills prescribed into a new bottle, which is given to the customer.

Now the pills might contain a serial number that ties them back to a specific batch, which would tie them to a pharmacy and they could pull up a log of customers who had prescriptions filled from that batch and narrow it down reasonably well (even to 1 person if that person was the only one who got a prescription filled from that batch) but there is no guarantee that it can be narrowed down to 1 specific person as there is no individual tracking information on the pills.

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[mcgrew]

You know, I kind of like the idea of deciding for myself what medication I take and when.

If you're talking about heroin or crack, sure, go ahead. But if you underdose on antibiotics, that affects ME, because you're breeding antibiotic-resistant bacteria. If you're not taking your Haldol or antidepressant, you might wind up walking into the path of my car.

I don't think you've thought this out very well.

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[CanHasDIY]

You went to the doctor, and he prescribed the fix. TAKE THE FUCKING MEDICINE OR DONT GO AT ALL.

Gee, I guess you're right; shame on me for doubting the omniscience of those who manage to (barely) pass the medical exams. /sarc

Seriously, since when did the profession of "doctor" become elevated to the level of infallible god? Newsflash, Sparky: Doctors fuck up. *Some* Doctors prescribe medication based not on patient need, but on what the Big Pharma rep giving him his weekly BJ wants him to prescribe. I say this from personal experience of 13 years of suffering from gallbladder disease, having untold numbers of doctors sell untold numbers of useless pills to me, without running a single test. They are, for the most part (and again, based on my personal experience), nothing more than glorified drug dealers.

Also worth noting, the majority of drugs dealt by doctors don't actually "fix" anything, so much as mask and/or treat the actual symptoms. "Fixing" your illness would be bad for their bottom line, i.e. no repeat business.

We don't need assholes like you deciding they know better than a PhD. Half-course antibiotics breed shit like MRSI.

Nice strawman, though poorly constructed - aside from pointing out the obvious, that medical doctors are not necessarily Ph.D. holders (Try M.D. or D.O.), were you aware that MRSA originated from within the medical community? Specifically, the national hospital system in England. Contrary to the fantasy you're positing here, a good portion of antibiotic resistant bacterium come from lazy doctors and hospital staff, not patients. Hence the reason you're more likely to die from a secondary infection while at the hospital, than what put you there to begin with.

Pain meds are different, I'll admit that... but you didn't specify what you're talking about and if you ahve that kind of attitude for one medication, you likely have it for another.

Idiots are going to fail to complete their antibiotic dosage regardless of whether or not you track them, so what good will it do? When facing a pandemic, what good is it to know who's to blame, when we should be focusing on the solution? Seems counterproductive to me.

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[CanHasDIY]

This is going to be used for the elderly and those who have medicine without which is it hard or impossible to remember to take or why to take your medicine.

This is the only reasonable use of the technology I can think of... which is why it probably won't be used in such a manner.

OTOH, my 86-year-old grandfather, who suffers from memory issues (as well as many other maladies common to men his age), and yet the age old "Su-M-T-W-Th-F-Sa" pill box technology has served him for decades without failure... a solution looking for a problem, perhaps?

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[Flaming Babies]

It's not a silly idea, in the right context. Companies running drug trials will be all over this. Noncompliance is a huge problem and, worse, it's currently a nearly unmeasureable problem.

In the right context, everything is silly. What was your second point?

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[Anonymous Coward]

(Like antibiotics against bacteria. Which every idiot knows you take until the end. [Apparently except for the retards around you.])

Seriously, have you ever met any human being at all? Anywhere? You've never known someone who took antibiotics off schedule? Who stopped taking them early? Who demanded antibiotics from their doctor despite having a viral condition? Fuck sakes, there's a non-trivial portion of the world population who is stupid, and who do fuck things up for the rest of us. 'tis life.

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[Anonymous Coward]

They also make the patients take a urine test. If there are no pain meds in your urine, you can't get more pills.

From what I've been told by people whom do this sort of thing they always hold back just a couple pills to take just before their doctor visit. I suppose however many/much and for how long is needed to show up properly in your system.

Posting anon because, despite the fact I do not and never have done this, I have no doubt that will be the assumption :/

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[MightyYar]

Even if you think that the drug market should opened up, insurance fraud is a problem that drives all of our costs up.

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[SGDarkKnight]

well, i would have to agree with you on this one. My old doctor that I use to go to was a huge pill pusher. I mean, he had pills for everything, and on more than one occasion, the pills he was giving out, turned out to have some major "unknown" side effects and got recalled. Thankfully, I didn't take any of them.

I'm sure my old family doctor wasn't the only one who was a pill pusher. So if it happened a couple of times to me, I'm sure it's happened to many others.

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[Anonymous Coward]

That's a tad shortsighted. If you worry about resistance, tackle both, since that _will_ end up in out foodchain, wreaking havoc in your digestive system. Half-finished antibiotic courses aren't half the problem. Taking antibiotics willy-nilly (in case of viral infections, common colds, etc) is. That and feeding antibiotics to livestock, which will excrete it and cause a low-level antibiotic presence in the environment or retain it and supply the foodchain with exactly that.

And all to have the cattle put on weight a little faster...

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[mcgrew]

Prior to Carter, the mentally ill were basically tucked away out of sight in asylums. Then they invented effective anti-psychotic medication, and so it became possible to treat the mentally ill. Of course, a treated mentally ill person does not need to be tucked away in an asylum anymore, so they were released... and a significant portion stopped taking their medication.

Either your history is faulty, or my memory is. Reagan is the one who freed the nutballs, and it was before many of the modern tretments came about, but long after Haldol (invented in 1958), a treatment for schitzophrenia and psychosis.

When they let the crazies out, they weren't treating them! I knew one such fellow with schitzophrenia, crazy as a loon, unable to hold a job or have any kind of normal life, on drugs, and lived on the government dole. He finally got treatment (Haldol), and the last time I saw him he had a job, a girlfriend, had given up the drugs (many mentally ill people are on illegal drugs because if their illnesses, and the medical community insists that the drugs cause the illness) and was an election judge!

Note that Haldol is injected once a month, the patient does not medicate himself.

We treat the mentally ill badly in this country. Very badly. I know one woman who had an incredibly bad childhood, had clinical depression since her teen years, started on drugs as a young adult, and her "treatment" always consisted of putting her in a drug treatment facility, again on the stupid assumption that the drugs caused her illness, rather than the other way around, despite the fact that the illness came first! She finally got some good help, is now on Paxil and off the illegal drugs. But those two are the exceptions to the rule, most mentally ill people get no help whatever.

Thise homeless bugging you for spare change? Most of them have mental problems and could be useful members of society if they had access to treatment.

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[CheshireDragon]

I usually get hydrocodones(10/325) to be exact for when my kidney decides to develop stones and then another bottle after the Lithotripsy procedure. A couple other times when I had some teeth pulled. I also currently take Adderall(10mg) for my ADHD. The ONLY thing that the pharmacist does, since they are controlled substances, is write down my name, address and the time they were picked up on some log sheet. I can only assume that the log they have is for some kind of tracking purpose. Any other ideas? I know they are not going to come to my door and and ask if I have been taking them properly. IF I OD and die they can trace it back to the pharmacy, then the DR, and ask if I was prescribed them or if I forged the script. After that I am on to a statistical database...

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[Anonymous Coward]

Ordinarily I'd agree that being monitored like this is a little too big brother-ish, however, there are some patients for whom this makes a lot of sense. As others have said, at the very least, it's useful for those with mental illness who may be trying to purposefully deceive the doctors. I had a schizophrenic uncle in this situation and the option was to either monitor his drugs closely to make sure he was taking his meds to allow him to live independantly (which couldn't always be done accurately), dose him so heavily that he lost hours at a time and forgets what day it is, or let him choose to "go off the radar" and live on the street (as he was when he was off his meds).

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[ethanms]

You know, I kind of like the idea of deciding for myself what medication I take and when. The idea of my doctor trying to make me ingest a sensor like I'm some sort of medical prisoner is more than a little creepy to me. What's next, is he going to give me forced ball-shock treatments if I refuse to eat healthy?

It's ridiculous if it's for high blood pressure or allergies... but not so ridiculous when you're a schizophrenic or someone else with a mental disorder that may put them into a state where they could be a danger to themselves or others.

It could be the difference between forced institutionalization and being able to live with more freedom in a group home. It could also be used for making sure that people who have been convicted of a crime related to their disorder remain compliant with a court ordered drug regime.

Very useful for elderly and border-line Alzheimer patients who may simply forget to take their meds. They may have their own scanner to check to see "did I take that pill today or not?"--right now many rely on 7-day pill containers, but those are hardly fool proof.

Bottom line is that for a mentally healthy individual this would probably come to down a matter of convenience in checking yourself to see if you took a certain pill that day or not.

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[ethanms]

I can also see this being useful in hospitals as a double-check that the correct medications have been administered orally. The medical aid comes by, takes your vitals and a quick scan of pills taken... it might detect mistakes before you become ill from them.

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[ethanms]

Some pills yes, other pills no.

I took Singulair for a time due to cat allergies, those were given to me at my local pharmacy in a sealed Merk container.

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[Anonymous Coward]

This system leaves a paper trail. That can be really valuable when grandpa comes in complaining that his meds aren't working, and the doctor can now see whether or not he's actually been taking them as instructed while deciding if changing the prescription is warranted*. It could also set automated alarms for accidental double-doses of dangerous meds. Which could save grandpa's life if he wakes up after a long nap thinking it's the next day.

* note this goes both ways. Knowing a patient hasn't been taking the meds the doc can give the "take your meds lecture" in lieu of upping the dosage. However If the patient has been taking the meds the doc now has more solid evidence that something needs to be changed.

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[ceoyoyo]

It's only a silly idea if it's silly in all contexts. What was your second sentence about?

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[izomiac]

Most people do not take medication 100% of the time. We're human and it's easy to forget. But, when the doctor asks, it's difficult to quantify and embarrassing to admit. You're free to disregard your doctor's advice, but most people would prefer their doctor have accurate information before giving that advice.

For example, if you don't take your diabetes medication regularly, your blood sugar won't be well regulated. With this technology, it becomes obvious that it's a compliance issue rather than an insulin resistance issue. You now know it's a problem, and your doctor will suggest ways to remember to take your medicine rather than increasing the dose (potentially very dangerous).

For controlled medications, it becomes easier to tell if someone is selling their painkillers on the street. Differentiating drug abuse from under-treated pain also becomes easier. ("You ran out early, I see you took 8 pills at a time and blew through your supply in a week." VS "You ran out early, I see that you've been taking them every 3 hours, so we need to switch to a longer acting form.")

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[ski9826]

Think about it this way: You receive heavy narcotics for some supposed chronic pain that you have. But instead of taking the pills, you sell them (this can create quite the residual income for you). Your insurance or medicaid/care pays for the pills, and you also sign a contract with your doctor saying that you will take the medication as prescribed. Selling the pills, or taking them all in one day is a violation of said contract as well as an unnecessary drain on the healthcare system (be it private or government). Currently, the only way to check to see if you are taking them as prescribed, is when you come in to see the doctor, they take your blood and see if there is a level of the drug in your system (easily bypassed by selling all your pills and then saving one for the day of your doctor visit) - this system would negate that process. I think it's a good idea. They're obviously not going to put this in your Ibuprofin 800mg tablets to make sure that you're taking them, this will be for narcotics and possibly anti-psychotic medications to ensure that they are being used properly.

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[Anonymous Coward]

Ahh, the vague memory fallacy..."I seem to recall that you are wrong!"

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[Anonymous Coward]

Or you know livestock on antibiotics constantly for no disease who we then eat. /captcha: trapped
"like a pig in a cage on antibiotics"

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[mrmeval]

Having had to take a blizzard of pills if there's a way to shriek at me when I don't I'll gladly take it. I, all puffed up with hubris and invulnerability, would question an older pill popper as to why they could not remember to take their pill. Now that I am in that position and with an affliction that causes short term memory loss and other symptoms I know I need the nudge to do what is right. As long as there is no forced medication I'm cool with this. I am of the opinion that any system that forces medication or medical treatment should be met with enough force to stop it.

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[Anonymous Coward]

"If you don't trust your doctor with that level of information, why even see him?"

A lot of doctors suck, and if medication wasn't by prescription only, we'd skip the visit entirely.
In the U.S., the government won't let me just order most #$@ medications on my own. I have a hyperthyroid condition, and the medication adjustments aren't rocket science.

TSH, Free T3/Free T4, and I CAN order the blood work on my own, but I can only get the anti-thyroid medication from a specialist doctor that hassles me every visit because I refuse to take one of the 2 treatment options that would guarantee her a patient for life as a hypothyroid patient with an incredibly crappy quality of life, instead of being hyperthyroid with periodic remissions where I'm free from medication for years at a time.

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[Anonymous Coward]

This is very true. When I think illegal drug dealers, I must admit that insurance does not readily come to mind.

While I know the one individual I was referring to in my last post does not pay for their pain meds or doctor visits with insurance, I have no doubt that a great many people who could get away with it are doing exactly that.

In the US our medical insurance racket is already something of a runaway train wreck, but such fraud as you mentioned is still similar to causing the difference between being stabbed in the eye six times, or "only" five times.

This is the reason why, before my last root canal, two weeks worth of antibiotics cost under $5 while two weeks of a relatively light pain medication cost almost $250.

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes as I've pointed out before this will in the end be used to strong-arm people into accepting prescription drugs under the
pretext of prophylaxis by making the use mandatory under their health insurance plans. With these sensors it is easy to tell
who is using what medications as well as who is avoiding them.

Personally I think the idea is as stupid as FUCK, Mr. Astor, Mr. Dupont and all the rest of you parasites along with their 2nd/3rd/4th tier bootlickers.
Sorry if I put it so blunt but statins and all those other drugs you push onto the population cause major ill effects that are just too noticeable.
Muscle pains, soreness, shortness of breath and appreciably diminished sex drive are just a few items from a long, long list
of symptoms. If you plan on forcing people to take these things you virtually guarantee yourselves a vast amount of opposition
despite whatever sanction your advisers come up with.

Rats don't eat poison unless you force it through their jaws down their throats and there are limits to human stupidity as well,
as incredible as that may sound. The wise thing is to accept that medications and vaccines will not reach everyone and should not be
thought of at all as a means to address the more intelligent and more aware. This class of resistant individuals could be dealt
with far more effectively through other means. You're doing a good job on the gullible cattle, how wise is it to upset the rest of
the herd that still has some mental capacity left?

Those cattle that answer with dumb comments to what I'm writing, I offer their (worthless) hides to you :-)

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[Anonymous Coward]

You are exactly the reason we need devices like this. Either take the medication as prescribed OR don't take any medication. But stop selectively breeding resistant bacteria that impact EVERYONE else.

Apparently the only medication that exists is antibiotics. Well, the more you know, I guess.

Fucking arrogant asshole.

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[NFN_NLN]

Yeah. Well, I sincerely hope you get a prescription for a strong laxative someday...

Well... If you don't take your full dose of Moviprep then you won't be properly cleaned out. And if the colonoscopy isn't conclusive then you waste the Doctors time which he could have spent with patients that DID take their full dose.

-Prescribed medication that requires taking to completion - Check
-Not an antibiotic - Check
-Being prescribed a strong laxative - Check

Check and Mate, Hahahhahaha :)

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[Anonymous Coward]

Precisely: this should be a system that answers to the patient, and only the patient. I wouldn't even want to ask my patients to send their drug usage data to my work phone unless they were in an acute condition. For chronic conditions, they can track it and report back to me during their scheduled visit. No one wants a doctor breathing down their neck every day--it cuts our efficacy and the patient's need to take responsibility for their health.

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[h4rr4r]

Those boxes are only really suitable for once a day pill dosages. I say that as someone who uses one. I find alarms far more useful.

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[Anonymous Coward]

Perhaps it is a tu quoque?

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[MightyYar]

My timeline might be slightly off - Carter, Reagan... point is - late 70s, early 80s.

The treatment options available to the destitute vary from state to state. But in general I agree with your assessment that we need to do more. Part of the difficulty, however, is in getting people to stay on their meds... which brings us back to the topic at hand: I think that a cheap way for a doctor to monitor the medication history of a patient could significantly improve treatment in general and relieve some of the stress on our public health system.

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[Ariyan]

I find it creepy also; but can the microchips be tracked? One problem that I see with this idea is that: if the pills that contain the "microchips" can be injested [which are injested according to the article] into the body then how do the microchips leave the body?

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[Anonymous Coward]

Totally unrelated. One does not effect the other. Just because feeding livestock antibiotics is a problem doesn't mean half-finished antibiotic courses are not.

Not unrelated, you simply fail to see the relationship. Consider whether CEO's making massive bonuses increased the GDP of the USA in the 80's, or whether small increases in wages for everyone led to the increase. CEO's making massive bonuses are relatively rare in the population, and people not finishing their anti-biotic course are relatively rare compared to the number of chickens receiving antibiotics unnecessarily. By their sheer numbers the chickens receiving antibiotics can be seen to be the main driving force behind antiobiotic resistant bacteria.

Of course, that assumes the bacteria in chicken are the same ones infecting us, which they aren't.

Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy?

[Anonymous Coward]

The log data is uploaded to a state wide tracking database that law enforcement and health care providers can check to ensure no one is getting controlled substances from other providers. Right wing authoritative control at its best.

Circumventable?

[Anonymous Coward]

Er, would dipping said chip in a pool of saliva accomplish the same feat?

Re:Circumventable?

[ananyo]

Er, would dipping said chip in a pool of saliva accomplish the same feat?

No. Sounds like you need stomach acid to activate.

Re:Circumventable?

[Bananatree3]

a bit of lemon juice and a swish in the mouth should take care of it.

Re:Circumventable?

[Anonymous Coward]

If you're trying to avoid taking the pill, then I doubt you'd want to let it dissolve in your mouth either.

Re:Circumventable?

[SJHillman]

At that point, the effort to fool it exceeds the effort to take the pills. There will always be people who will work harder to avoid work than to just do the work in the first place but I think most of these people just don't want to be bothered to remember to take the pill more than anything else.

Re:Circumventable?

[jklovanc]

This is not designed to force people to take drugs but to see how people are actually taking their drugs. People forget things for different reasons and it is great to have a solid reminder when to take meds. Sure, one could use multiple alarms but they get annoying when one has already taken that dose. I would much prefer an alarm that went off only when I forget and this technology will facilitate that. Pill boxes are great but one must still remember to take the pills.

Re:Circumventable?

[ethanms]

At that point, the effort to fool it exceeds the effort to take the pills.

Some of us don't want to take the pills....... wwweeeee!!! the colors!

Re:Circumventable?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes thinking that too, a way to emulate the stomach environment.. Trouble is it's not just the stomach many medications
are absorbed through the intestines. And it's not as easy as just dumping some acid onto the sensors and scanning them
with your person-minder aka phone. Stomach fluids consist of bile, a compound that is synthesized from cholesterol,
pepsin and other enzymes that actually do the digestion and a little hydrochloric acid to loosen things up. You will have to
throw up into a bowl every morning when you're supposed to take a pill and this will damage your esophagus and teeth
over time. On top of that you have to keep it moving and at a certain temperature too because they could check for that as
well as the refine the sensors. Now if they detect whether the sensor travelled into the intestine that environment also
needs to be emulated as well and you're not done with barfing into a bowl. Intestines are a different environment in terms
of acidity and digestion and breakdown continues through bacterial enzymes. You'll need to emulating those as well.

Ha just thought of a good one, this is very cruel but you could feed it to an animal. Unless they genetically test the species
this might be an approach. Maybe if you fed it to a different animal every day.. or maybe you abduct one of the guilty parties in
the process and use them. You could potentially dig a hidden cellar under your house and keep them in there. That way you
would not have to hurt animals and it's way easier than attempting any emulation of the digestive system.

False Negative?

[NFN_NLN]

So what happens when there is a false negative?

Dr: Did you take your pill?
P: Yes
Dr: The pill didn't register; are you sure you didn't forget? You better take another one.

Re:False Negative?

[Antony T Curtis]

I can see you're really upset about this. I honestly think you ought to sit down calmly, take a stress pill and think things over.

Re:False Negative?

[Hentes]

Which is why their efficacy was tested before approval.

Re:False Negative?

[tomhath]

Probably more like "I see you didn't take the anti-psychotic medication that's part of your parole conditions..."

Re:False Negative?

[Anonymous Coward]

Failure to do so may result in prosecution for criminal drug evasion.

Re:False Negative?

[h4rr4r]

Then don't end up on parole?
Parole is instead of being in jail, right now for that sort of thing they use urine or blood tests. I fail to see how this is any different.

Re:False Negative?

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow. Between this and your other post in this thread, you really come off as an alarmist. You do realize this is currently only allowed in placebos, right?

Try this:

Dr: Did you take your pill?
P: Yes.
Dr: Oh, it must not have registered.

Now, if it is regularly not registering the doctor will know you haven't taken your pills. But generally speaking missing a single pill isn't cause for concern whether you are lying or not. And if it's pain relief, the only person you are hurting is yourself...

Re:False Negative?

[Anonymous Coward]

But we're not ALL on parole...

Re:False Negative?

[Anonymous Coward]

Because nothing ever gets through the FDA with disastrous results, right?

Re:False Negative?

[Anonymous Coward]

But we're not ALL on parole...

then you won't have to take a medication as part of your parole so tomhath's comment doesn't apply to you.
it's called thinking. do it.

Re:False Negative?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm a professional, and: PROTIP: Anti-psychotic medication will by its very definition NEVER EVER fix anything. It will only hide away the symptoms, so a fucking company can make profit on what will basically be an addiction for life. Actual healing would require very intense input resulting in positive associations (neural bonds [=learning]) forming with the right things (and negative ones with the wrong ones). But nobody got the balls to do that. Everybody just scratches the surface, gives up when it changes nothing (What a surprise!) , and then prescribes these symptom hiders. Fuckin' losers. And besides: Who decides what's right or wrong anyway? I know most people are incredibly egocentric and assume there must (Notice the wish to irrationally force it, no matter what?) be some global common set of morale rules.. which of course are aways theirs... or their social group's. Hint: You have no right to enforce your beliefs on anybody. Yes, that includes murder and rape. If the "victim" agrees with it, it's none of your business. And unless you are grown up enough, that you can accept that, just shut the fuck up.

Re:False Negative?

[h4rr4r]

So then don't take the medicine?

I fail to see how this matters on bit then.
This is just another option for testing compliance for medicine. Paroles are already piss tested to ensure they are not taking illegal drugs and can also be tested for required ones.

Re:False Negative?

[h4rr4r]

If that was the standard then you would be complaining people died because drugs were not approved fast enough.

Re:False Negative?

[jklovanc]

That is not a problem with the doctor and not the pill. If my doctor did not believe what I told him I would find another doctor.

Re:False Negative?

[Anonymous Coward]

I doubt very much that the point is to make certain that a patient takes every pill exactly on time. If there is a false negative then the advice of the doctor will be the same as when a patient doesn't remember whether they took their pill this morning -- just resume taking pills at your normal schedule.

The device can reveal when a patient is systematically failing to take their medication so that the doctor understands why the chosen therapy doesn't seem to be working well.

Re:False Negative?

[Anonymous Coward]

What the fuck are you talking about? Are you even cognizant of the fucking point you're responding to?

Micro chips or RFID tags?

[Kenja]

Doesn't sound like they're talking about microchips in the manor many of us would assume when hearing the phrase ""digestible microchips". These sound more like RFID chips that derive their power from stomach acid rather then radio signals.

HMO cellphones that can track what you eat?

[o_ferguson]

"Q: Is Control controlled by its need to control? A: Yes." -Burroughs. http://cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/weblog/777.html Prescient and informative. Upvotes, plz.

Re:HMO cellphones that can track what you eat?

[X0563511]

Totally unrelated to any of this.

"Downvotes, plz"

Re:HMO cellphones that can track what you eat?

[o_ferguson]

I bow to your slightly lesser UID. Downvote away.

Uh oh

[Antipater]

Next they'll be creating "parent-friendly" vegetables that tell you when your kid is slipping them to the dog under the table.

Re:Uh oh

[SJHillman]

I'm not a parent yet, but I'm hoping by the time I am they come up with a pill that will turn your skin bright purple if you don't eat enough vegetables.

Re:Uh oh

[Dunbal]

If you rely on a pill for that then you are probably a terrible parent.

Re:Uh oh

[Sir_Sri]

That would make for an interesting 2020 or 2030 US census. Race: Purple 95%. Blue: 5% (people who are Red Green colourblind)

Re:Uh oh

[Anonymous Coward]

You'll know when the vegetables come back out one end or the other of the dog.

Re:Uh oh

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, parents should be able to turn their children bright purple without the help of a pill.

Mom! I Swallowed A Microchip!

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

I used to have a stomach virus, but now I have a COMPUTER VIRUS! :-)

Re:Mom! I Swallowed A Microchip!

[Anonymous Coward]

-- No problem, kid! Here, take that and put on your shirt...
-- Mom! "Linux inside" ?!?

Definitely can be helpful under right conditions

[Anonymous Coward]

As someone who has an elderly parent who does not take her medication properly and then fibs to the doctor, this would be very helpful. Also, for patients with memory issues, also very helpful. As long as it is an optional item, I don't see anything wrong with this. If you don't wish for the medication to be monitored, then that's something that should be your choice. I would also think the more delicate or severe the problem being addressed, the more it should be suggested and used. My grandmother would forget her medication and take it too much, causing extremely low blood pressure, and this could have helped.

intellectual property

[Anonymous Coward]

I heard qualcomm pushing this a few years ago. The guy was candid that the big win for this was to extend the IP protections on drugs. 2 immediate impacts - the code transmitted is copyrighted and protectable longer than patent. No more patent cliff issues. Secondly, this is meant to fight fake drugs / illegal copies ... think Indian pharma.

This is not for wellness or drug efficacy. That's a canard.

Re:intellectual property

[Belial6]

I don't see how this would extend the protection on the drug itself. If my doctor presents me with the choice of $1500 for a cycle of name brand medicine with chips embedded or $50 for generic that will cure the disease but won't let me monitor how often I take the pill with my cell phone, the choice becomes pretty obvious.

Re:intellectual property

[Anonymous Coward]

I think (but don't know) that the idea is that FDA would only bless the combined drug / chip and would not bless the drug without the chip. Think about the difference between approving a drug at specific dosing levels as opposing to simply blessing the raw materials.

Re:intellectual property

[sFurbo]

The code can't be copyrighted, it is not a product of creativity. If a knock-off pill was given to me by my doctor after the original patent has run out, why wouldn't the knock-off contain an equivalent chip? You are right that it helps against illegal copies, but that is a good thing for the patient. If it is an illegal copy, why would it contain the active ingredient?

Do not want....

[Anonymous Coward]

Hey, if there's some doctor that prescribes something that I decide isn't a good idea and ignore the prescription, then screw off... I'm not taking it for a reason.

Re:Do not want....

[X0563511]

The reason? The reason is you think you know better than a professional?

If your not going to listen, why did you go in the first place?

Re:Do not want....

[MitchDev]

Some doctors are good, others are just profit-centers for Big Pharma... Why find a cure, there's no profit on that. Getting them stuck on your meds for the rest of their lives on the other hand...

Re:Do not want....

[Anonymous Coward]

But the correct option is not to "not take the drugs and ignore the problem" but instead to get a doctor that you agree more with that also treats you (personally i prefer the latter, but you are free to prefer the former) - people here makes it sound like when a doctor suggests you a solution, you are somehow forced to take it... you dont have to, you may even be able to talk with the same doctor about alternative solutions than taking medicine. - But either go through with what you start, or dont start, is that too much to ask?

Re:Do not want....

[Anonymous Coward]

"the reason is you think you know better than a professional?"

You really internalized that conditioning pretty well. Yes, always defer to the expert, always
trust in the expert, for he or she knows better. Well my little munchkin, tell you what, I know
how medical 'experts' are made .. or better put .. trained. So no, I would certainly not want to be
at the receiving end of this kind of healthcare, thank you.

Re:Do not want....

[Anonymous Coward]

I went to a doctor because I had foot swelling and slow wound healing. Automatically assumed I was diabetic and Metformin was prescribed. Another doctor diagnosed it as a blood clot.

Correct me if I am wrong...

[gagol]

The pill sends a signal to a patch that then transmit a wireless signal to your smartphone who then sends the info to your doctor. Cheating this system would be laughably easy, one only need to replicate the patch signal... Also, dont we have more urgent problems to solve than this? It reflects the trend of controlling each and every aspect of our lives more and more. That trend is much more scarier than the tracking technologies such as this one.

Re:Correct me if I am wrong...

[dalias]

Cheating the system should be as simple as throwing up and then dissolving the pill in your vomit next to the sensor.

Imagine

[Anonymous Coward]

What's to stop someone from extracting the "sand grain-sized" chip from the pill and slipping it into someone's food, and then using the signal to track them? Or use a chip from a controlled substance to frame someone for illicit drug use?

Diverticulitis

[ThatsNotPudding]

How do these little wonders not end up in all our Western World intestinal pouches and stay there permanently? Or for that matter, take a right at the appendix?

Wi-Fi

[ThatsNotPudding]

Take enough of these, and we finally will be susceptable to Wi-Fi fields!

Re:Wi-Fi

[Anonymous Coward]

Take enough of these, and we finally will be susceptable to Wi-Fi fields!

I was just hoping for FM radio but to be able to be a WiFi repeater for my tablet!?! If only! I'm gonna see if I can get them to prescribe me the LTE variant so I can be a hotspot!

As Mr. Mackey says "Drugs are bad, mkay?"

[BetaDays]

As Mr. Mackey says "Drugs are bad, mkay?"

http://youtu.be/2JWDmnWjsvo

Is this...

[Anonymous Coward]

... just to make sure mental hospital patients stay under "drug-induced lobotomy" forever? I never got over the paranoia I got from watching One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

Harder to pretend to take medicine

[brickmack]

This will probably be used by parents and mental hospitals to make sure people take their medicine, instead of spittin it back out when they look away. Wonderful.

Like, wow, man . . . this is so THX-1138 . . .

[PolygamousRanchKid]

Where George Lucas made a non-cutie, non-family "film" (not "moive") about Robert Duval getting busted for "Criminal Drug Evasion" for not taking his happy pill calm the masses downers: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/THX-1138

"If you feel you are not properly sedated, call 348-844 immediately. Failure to do so may result in prosecution for criminal drug evasion."

"You are a true believer. Blessings of the state, blessings of the masses. Thou art a subject of the divine. Created in the image of man, by the masses, for the masses."

"Let us be thankful we have an occupation to fill. Work hard; increase production, prevent accidents, and be happy."

"Let us be thankful we have commerce. Buy more. Buy more now. Buy more and be happy."

Re:Like, wow, man . . . this is so THX-1138 . . .

[Anonymous Coward]

Change of plans:

we'll keep this:
"You are a true believer. Blessings of the state, blessings of the masses. Thou art a subject of the divine. Created in the image of man, by the masses, for the masses."

and this:

"Let us be thankful we have an occupation to fill. Work hard; increase production, prevent accidents, and be happy."

but this has to go:
"Let us be thankful we have commerce. Buy more. Buy more now. Buy more and be happy."

instead we're going to say:
"Let us be thankful we were accepted into this world through the infinite graces of the Earth Mother. Let us want less for us to be a lesser burden upon her."

There is no need for commerce. We have the means to completely subdue the human cattle today already, there is no need
for elaborate physical distractions anymore. So instead of creating landfills of junk we will introduce a religion, a pervasive mindset
of austerity and self-abasement. Three generations from now, those hapless creatures of the future will be completely unrecognizable
to you living today.

Unintended Consequences

[datsa]

Am I the only one here who remembers the scene in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest where the hero pretends to swallow his daily sedative and then slyly spits it out? The movie would have been a lot shorter if this technology was around then...

This idea makes some sense with antibiotics, but once you get into psychiatric medicine it's downright scary.

Mmmmmmm

[cstacy]

Mmmmmm.....pork...chips

I kind of don't like

[publiclurker]

having to deal with mental patients who are off their meds and drug resistant bacteria created by self important morons who feel that their self-serving opinions are better than the lives of everyone around them.

Pink Floyd Reference

[trevc]

If you don't eat your meds, you can't have any pudding!

That charge has an effect

[jago25_98]

That small electrical charge isn't going to make a big impact but... it does have an effect.

When breeding Kefir the charge from just a piece of metal is enough to kill it. Likewise, a charge from copper is enough to deter slugs (I don't think it's the slipperyness). Also, in my own accidental double blind experiment (which will remain nameless) I found that electrical charge in the body is what I believe the lowest hanging fruit for scientific study.

So I think the pill will kill off natural fauna in the gut, possibly making way for other microbes.
I wish I had some literature to back me up on that.

Most of the applications at the moment are bad news. Hopefully we might see an unintended positive use for it.

Not the first ingestible, but the first digestible

[proggoddess]

The article is slightly wrong. There are plenty of devices that are ingestible (able to be swallowed) but non-digestible (unable to be broken down into smaller parts). Several companies make capsules that take pictures, measure pH, transit time, etc. and are FDA-cleared. This is probably the first one that is electrically powered that is also digestible.

Geoerge Bernard Shaw on medicine

[Anonymous Coward]

I read somewhere, at least I think I read it, that once Geoerge Bernard Shaw went to the Doctor for some ailment and the Doctor gave him some pills. As directed by the Doctor, Mr. Shaw would take a pill at prescribed intervals and throw it away in the garbage. When his wife asked why he had gone to the Doctor if he never innteded to take the medication, Mr. Shaw reply was something along the lines of "I went to the Doctor for his good, I thorw the medicince for my good".

This is going to sound like I am a monster but I am not, if someone doesn't take medication and they die, let them die. We are not actively killing them in illegal wars, are we? Why does the cost of "Smart Tablets" have to be amortized by one an all? I stop taking pills when I am feeling better unless the problems is bacterial.

Forced medication with statins etc.!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Remember how everybody has to have health insurance? Enter genetic profiling in the 2013-2018 timeframe. You will
be profiled at some point and then comes the day you receive an offer from your insurance company to start taking
statins in 'exchange' for reduced premiums. The letter will say your genetic profile indicates you 'might' benefit from
statins. While you hold out and research the many quality of life diminishing "side" effects of statins and refuse the deal,
they increase premiums until at some point you have to accept. Sure I was planning to fill prescriptions and then flush
them myself until I found out about this compliance monitoring system. So no you wont be able to go and fill the prescription
and flush it down the toilet. They're trying hard to make sure they get their poisons in your system.

one issue

[Anonymous Coward]

my script says one per 4 hrs but there are times when i take more and take less pain meds it does avg out that i run out near end of each month and that is just how it is....

a chip in them does not tell them anything but that i am taking them and the question is how long does this crap last in a persons system do they keep building up till we need another pill to flush them out?

builds a charge eh? SO the next time i get a static electricity shock on a rug ill really feel it?

Overdose

[k31bang]

When swallowed, it generates a slight voltage in response to digestive juices, which conveys a signal to the surface of a person's skin where a patch then relays the information to a mobile phone belonging to a healthcare-provider.

So what kills you first when you OD? The voltage OD or the drug OD?

my pain is not constantly terrible

[Anonymous Coward]

it takes two percacet to get rifd of ankle pain ( sciatica ) that seems to be there but not hurt as bad as it used too.
i am perscribed one for that 4 hr period

now i also due to the nature of this pain get awful 10-18 bouts of back spasms irregularly as in maybe 4-5 times a month that well i can take 4 times as much meds and it barely works to allow for sleep.

the doc knows htis and gives me enough after some time to get buy. i dont want a pill that zaps my guts if i have to take 15 over a 18 hr period sorry its cant be good zapping stuff that you need to live in your gut to break food down....im already on stomach medicine....

Re:my pain is not constantly terrible

[X0563511]

"Pain meds are different, I'll admit that... but you didn't specify what you're talking about and if you ahve that kind of attitude for one medication, you likely have it for another."

Guess you missed that?

Insurance: Didn't take your pills, not covered

[Anonymous Coward]

That seems like the most likely abuse. The insurance companies tell the patient "Sorry, but since you didn't take your pills we're not going to pay for them" (or even worse, "you didn't follow the doctor's prescribed medication regiment, we aren't covering anything related to that condition").

Insurance companies, lawyers, rejoice!

[fygment]

Plaintiff: The drugs had undocumented side-effects that have left me paralyzed from the neck down.

Lawyers for the Defence: Your honour, we have documented proof that the plaintiff did not adhere strictly to the dosage regimen specified. If the medication had been taken properly, the "side-effects" would not have manifested.

Some good may come off this ... and very much bad.

Designed for specific illnesses

[Anonymous Coward]

The product was designed with specific populations in mind -- particularly TB, where compliance is vital to public health. There are plans to build in consumer focused information as well. One does have to be wearing the band-aid like patch for the rfid chip to report.

There are problems with the product, but right now it cannot be used to monitor you without your knowing.

Re:Definitely can be helpful under right condition

[Anonymous Coward]

They're going to cost $100 a pop, and there's no way insurance will cover them. Can you afford that?

what i really need to know is

[KingBenny]

how to scan for the presence of these things ... they could be anywhere ... like clothes hangers multiplying when you don't look in your closet for a day or two

thanks, Mr. Goldberg

[gzuckier]

They already have pill bottle caps which keep tabs of how many times they are opened; and of course, the doctors can always just check whether you're buying your prescriptions on schedule. Which they already do. Because if you're motivated enough to evade your prescriptions by buying the drugs, opening the bottle, and putting the pills down the toilet, you're not going to be stopped by the need to stick the patch on a glass of carbonated or other acidic beverage and drop the pill in there so it generates the appropriate signal.

Because we want to make sure that you are

[ToddInSF]

actually taking our dangerous, new, poorly tested drugs.

It guarantees "compliance", after all, and doctors and HMO's have an inherent right to coerce you into it, by any means necessary.