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

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?

[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?

[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.

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.

Mom! I Swallowed A Microchip!

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

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