From Wired’s list of 10 Top Technology Breakthroughs of 2008
9. Edible Chips
Grandma’s pillbox with the days of the week neatly marked is set to go high tech. Tiny edible chips will replace the organizer, tracking when patients take their pills (or don’t) and monitoring the effects of the drugs they’re taking. Proteus, a Redwood City, California, company, has created tiny chips out of silicon grains that, once swallowed, activate in the stomach. The chips send a signal to an external patch that monitors vital parameters such as heart rate, temperature, state of wakefulness or body angle.
The data is then sent to an online repository or a cellphone for the physician and the patient to track. Proteus says its chips can keep score of how patients are responding to the medication. That may be just the beginning, as the chips could improve drug delivery and even insert other kinds of health monitors inside the body. Now doctors may have a better answer to a common patient complaint — they will know exactly how it feels.
Outlook: If proven in clinical trials, edible chips could let physicians look into a patient’s system in a way that could change how medicine is prescribed and how we take the drugs.
Commentary
While I am less confident than the denizens of Wired that the edible chips will automatically mark a revolution in health care, I do believe they could be a key tool in researching and confirming patient compliance.
At the least, they should be the new gold standard for tracking medication adherence.
Credit Due Department: Image from Businessweek