Pills With Digestible Microchips Approved By US Drug Agency 163
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."
Science Marches On (Score:1)
Mom! I Swallowed A Microchip! (Score:5, Funny)
I used to have a stomach virus, but now I have a COMPUTER VIRUS! :-)
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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...
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Am I the only one that finds this creepy? (Score:5, Insightful)
“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? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy? (Score:5, Interesting)
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They also make the patients take a urine test. If there are no pain meds in your urine, you can't get more pills.
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Even if you think that the drug market should opened up, insurance fraud is a problem that drives all of our costs up.
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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? (Score:5, Insightful)
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? (Score:4, Insightful)
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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.
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Nope. Straw Man perhaps, but I'm no expert at naming the fallacy. I just know that there's one there.
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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...
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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
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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 :)
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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.
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(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.
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Don't forget that they can already arrest tuberculosis patient for not taking their meds [google.com]
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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.
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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 help
Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy? (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
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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 str
Re:Am I the only one that finds this creepy? (Score:5, Informative)
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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I just use my smartphone, costs a little more than $20, but it works.
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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...
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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.
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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?
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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 n
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"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?
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“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.
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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.
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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?
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It's only a silly idea if it's silly in all contexts. What was your second sentence about?
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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 prob
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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 [wikipedia.org] argument. Sensors i
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Reminds me of this [youtube.com].
I kind of don't like (Score:2)
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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 medi
Circumventable? (Score:1)
Er, would dipping said chip in a pool of saliva accomplish the same feat?
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Er, would dipping said chip in a pool of saliva accomplish the same feat?
No. Sounds like you need stomach acid to activate.
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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.
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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!
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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.
False Negative? (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
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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.
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Which is why their efficacy was tested before approval.
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If that was the standard then you would be complaining people died because drugs were not approved fast enough.
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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.
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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.
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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.
Micro chips or RFID tags? (Score:3)
Uh oh (Score:4, Insightful)
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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.
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Yeah, parents should be able to turn their children bright purple without the help of a pill.
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That would make for an interesting 2020 or 2030 US census. Race: Purple 95%. Blue: 5% (people who are Red Green colourblind)
Definitely can be helpful under right conditions (Score:3, Interesting)
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 (Score:1)
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.
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Correct me if I am wrong... (Score:2)
Diverticulitis (Score:2)
Wi-Fi (Score:3)
As Mr. Mackey says "Drugs are bad, mkay?" (Score:1)
http://youtu.be/2JWDmnWjsvo [youtu.be]
Harder to pretend to take medicine (Score:1)
Like, wow, man . . . this is so THX-1138 . . . (Score:2)
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 [wikipedia.org]
"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 mas
Unintended Consequences (Score:1)
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 (Score:2)
Pink Floyd Reference (Score:2)
That charge has an effect (Score:1)
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
Overdose (Score:2)
So what kills you first when you OD? The voltage OD or the drug OD?
Insurance companies, lawyers, rejoice! (Score:2)
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.
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Totally unrelated to any of this.
"Downvotes, plz"
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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?
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