E Amazings – Money management
  • Home
  • Automotive
  • Business
  • CBD
  • Crypto
  • Education
  • Entertainment
  • Fashion
  • Finance
  • Health
  • Home Improvement
  • Law \ Legal
  • News
  • Shopping
  • Sports
  • Technology
  • Travel
  • Need Help?

Subscribe to Updates

Get the latest creative news from FooBar about art, design and business.

What's Hot

What Closing Costs Do Home Buyers Have?

February 25, 2023

What Is Realtek HD Audio Manager

February 2, 2023

A Basic Guide To Cell Tower Leasing

February 2, 2023
Facebook Twitter Instagram
E Amazings – Money management
  • Home
  • Automotive
  • Business
  • CBD
  • Crypto
  • Education
  • Entertainment
  • Fashion
  • Finance
  • Health
  • Home Improvement
  • Law \ Legal
  • News
  • Shopping
  • Sports
  • Technology
  • Travel
  • Need Help?
Facebook Twitter Instagram
E Amazings – Money management
You are at:Home»Technology»Smart Pills Can Tell Your Doctor That You’ve Taken Them
Technology

Smart Pills Can Tell Your Doctor That You’ve Taken Them

By September 26, 2022No Comments5 Mins Read
Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email
Share
Facebook Twitter Pinterest WhatsApp Email

[ad_1]

We have many kinds of pills available these days to treat all kinds of different disorders. Of course, the problem with pills is that they don’t work if you don’t take them. Even Worse, for some medicines, missing a dose can cause all kinds of undesirable withdrawl effects and set back a patient’s treatment.

Smart pills aim to fix this problem with a simple monitoring solution that can tell when a patient has taken their medication. They’re now publicly available and authorized for use, so let’s look at how they work.

They’re Putting Microchips In The Pills Now (Really!)

The development of the smart pill is very much a product of miniaturization. Modern electronics has advanced to the point where tiny sensors can be created in a size small enough to embed in a single pill.

Proteus Digital Health developed the Abilify MyCite system with Otsaka America Pharmaceutical. Proteus later went bankrupt, though also developed smart pill solutions to treat other diseases like tuberculosis. Credit: Proteus.com via Internet Archive ED NOTE: Hard to find pics, is a grab from the company’s now defunct site OK?

Perhaps the most well-known example is the medication known as Abilify MyCite, approved by the FDA in 2017. It’s a treatment that consists of an aripiprazole tablet with an included sensor that helps determine when a patient has taken the pill. The mechanism of action is ingenious. A tiny CMOS circuit is placed in the pill, along with a primitive battery cell. The battery cell is made up of magnesium and copper chloride. It is activated and releases its energy when the pill is in the presence of stomach acid, powering the CMOS circuit which sends a low-power modulated signal at a frequency of between 10 and 30 KHz, at a rate of approximately two packets per second. The signal is then picked up by a patch worn on the body, which sends a ping to a paired smartphone or tablet over standard Bluetooth. The components that make up the sensor are either harmlessly processed by the body or passed out as waste, with the sensor itself roughly the size of a grain of sand.

The system allows a smartphone to log when the patient takes a pill, updating the patient’s own records and sharing them with medical personnel. It also allows reminders to be sent if the patient forgets a dose, for example. By taking an automatic log, the system can help patients that may have issues remembering to take their medication. It can also alert doctors early in the case that a patient is missing their regular doses.

In the case of the Abilify MyCite pill, the medication involved is an ayptical antipsychotic drug by the technical name of aripiprazole. It’s primarily used as a treatment for conditions like schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. It’s a medication that can have negative withdrawl effects. The conditions it is intended to treat are also those that often come with issues around forgetting to take medications regularly. Thus, on paper, a system to track patients taking such a medication would appear to be a great tool to avoid negative outcomes.

Despite this, the Abilify MyCite monitoring system has raised significant concerns around patient privacy and safety. To ease this, thus far, patients using the system must sign consent forms allowing doctors or family members to monitor the system. The smartphone app will also allow the patient to block the sharing of this data at will.

Alternative solutions for those who can’t regularly take pills include long-lasting “depot” injections. These can be uncomfortable, but last for up to a month with a single dose. Credit: WhispyHistory, CC-BY-SA-4.0

However, there are concerns that such technology will enable more invasive activity from the healthcare system. Insurers could theoretically require such systems for patients requesting certain medications, and penalize those that don’t comply with their treatment scheme. Similarly, patients on release from psychiatric care could be threatened with involuntary admission for not adhering to their prescribed dose schedule. This comes with the risk that a malfunctioning pill or sensor patch could unfairly punish even “compliant” patients. Even worse, conditions like schizophrenia often come with symptoms of paranoia, particularly around surveillance and technology. Literally putting microchips into the pills to treat the condition won’t help in that regard.

There are also questions around whether or not the system will actually help patients to take their medications more regularly. Typically, medical professionals talk in terms of “patient compliance” with treatment. However, the sensors aren’t a sure-fire solution to this. Some have noted that patients could induce vomiting after taking the medicine in an attempt to fool the system. Alternatively, it’s plausible that dropping a pill into something approximating stomach acid may also trigger the chip inside to send a positive signal. Notably, the FDA notes from 2017 admit that the system hasn’t been proven to “improve patient compliance with their treatment regimen.”

Overall, smart pills are an amazing piece of medical engineering. Being able to sense when a pill has been ingested in a non-invasive manner is an impressive technological feat. As with so many new developments, though, there are heavy ethical concerns to contend with. Expect smart pills and their usage to become a shifting battleground between doctors, patients, and insurance companies in the years to come.

[ad_2]

Source link

Related Posts

What Is Realtek HD Audio Manager

By Corbin BowenFebruary 2, 2023

A Basic Guide To Cell Tower Leasing

By Corbin BowenFebruary 2, 2023

The Flight Of The Dremel

By January 5, 2023

A White-Light Laser, On The Cheap

By January 5, 2023
Add A Comment

Comments are closed.

Our Picks

What Closing Costs Do Home Buyers Have?

By Corbin BowenFebruary 25, 2023

What Is Realtek HD Audio Manager

By Corbin BowenFebruary 2, 2023

A Basic Guide To Cell Tower Leasing

By Corbin BowenFebruary 2, 2023
Recent Posts
  • What Closing Costs Do Home Buyers Have? February 25, 2023
  • What Is Realtek HD Audio Manager February 2, 2023
  • A Basic Guide To Cell Tower Leasing February 2, 2023
  • Air Duct Repair 101: Everything You Need To Know February 2, 2023
  • Advantage LIC? How Budget Insurance Amendment Bill may benefit the PSU insurance giant January 5, 2023
  • The Flight Of The Dremel January 5, 2023
  • LIC offering multiple benefits on premium payment with co-branded credit cards with Axis Bank: Check features, offer January 5, 2023
Archives
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • September 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
Facebook Twitter Instagram Pinterest TikTok
© 2022 E Amazings - All Rights Reserved.

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.