Skip Page Banner  
HEALTH CARE
BLOG

 

Thursday, August 2, 2012

FDA Approves Ingestible Sensor

by Nathaniel Weixel

RSS

Despite the best intentions of doctors, patients are not always the best at remembering to take their medications. But a new device recently approved by FDA aims to make it easier for doctors to see if patients have been following their prescribed treatment. The Ingestion Event Marker(or IEM)is a microchip manufactured by Proteus Digital Health that's implanted into a pill, or other type of pharmaceutical that can be ingested.

The sensor is activated by digestive fluids in the stomach. Once the sensor is activated, it communicates a unique signal that determines the patient's identity and timing of ingestion, as well as physiological data like heart rate, body position and activity. That signal is then relayed to a cell phone app. With the patient's consent, the information is accessible by caregivers and clinicians. The company said the information can help individuals develop and sustain healthy habits, families to make better health choices, and clinicians to provide more effective, data-driven care.

The device seems to be a major step forward into digitized medicine. Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Translational Science Institute in La Jolla,California, who is not affiliated with Proteus Digital Health, was quoted in a statement saying that directly digitizing pills “may prove to be the new standard for influencing medication adherence and significantly aid chronic disease management.”

So while the device certainly helps with patient monitoring, it's also more of a learning system, so doctors can learn about how patients respond to certain treatment regimens and adjust accordingly.
Subscription RequiredAll BNA publications are subscription-based and require an account. If you are a subscriber to the BNA publication and signed-in, you will automatically have access to the story. If you are not a subscriber, you will need to sign-up for a trial subscription.

You must Sign In or Register to post a comment.

Comments (0)