Do you remember to take your pills?
How’s this for interesting… The Daily Mail reports that there exists a microchip that tells your physician if you’ve remembered to take your pills or not.
The digestible microchip is inserted into your pills. Once ingested, the 1mm wide sensors could tells physicians and surgeons whether pills have been taken correctly and on time.
Who would be candidates of such technology?
- Elderly
- Chronically ill
- People with heart disease
- Women on the Pill
- People with mental disorders like schizophrenia who simply cannot remember if they’ve taken a pill or not
- Anyone else just with darn bad memories
A harmless electrical charge would be activated once the drug is in the stomach. Then the information is picked up by a “sensing patch” on the patient’s stomach or back, which records the time and date the pill was digested. The patch also measures heart rate, notion and breathing patterns.
The information goes to a mobile phone and then to the Internet.
Trials are set to begin in the UK by two major drug companies within 12 months.
It is yet to be seen if this technology is seen as empowering patients by giving them and their families actual wellness measurements and peace of mind.