Engineers at the University of Florida create a system to prevent patients who circumvent medical treatment.
A pill equipped with a small chip that sends an alert when it was ingested would be the solution for those who forget (or refuse) to take their medication.
The action is quite simple: inside a white capsule, common, is the microchip. Around it, covering the pill, are silver lines that constitute the antenna – a kind of label printed using ink made of silver nanoparticles and nontoxic conductors.
The pill does not require a battery because a mini-explosion is responsible for sending signals from low voltage to a small electronic device charged (or used) by the patient. In the future, it can be embedded in mobile phones and watches, to further facilitate the control. The device sends signals to a phone or laptop warning that the pill was ingested and informs the doctor that the medicine was taken.
Eventually, the patient’s stomach acid breaks down the antenna and the dish – while the microchip is in the entire intestinal tract before being expelled.
The pill is still a prototype, but the idea is that it can be used on a large scale. According to the American Heart Association, the failure in following the rules on drugs is the number one problem in treating diseases. In the U.S., 10% of hospitalizations were the result of relapse of patients to follow medication.
A pill equipped with a small chip that sends an alert when it was ingested would be the solution for those who forget (or refuse) to take their medication.
The action is quite simple: inside a white capsule, common, is the microchip. Around it, covering the pill, are silver lines that constitute the antenna – a kind of label printed using ink made of silver nanoparticles and nontoxic conductors.
The pill does not require a battery because a mini-explosion is responsible for sending signals from low voltage to a small electronic device charged (or used) by the patient. In the future, it can be embedded in mobile phones and watches, to further facilitate the control. The device sends signals to a phone or laptop warning that the pill was ingested and informs the doctor that the medicine was taken.
Eventually, the patient’s stomach acid breaks down the antenna and the dish – while the microchip is in the entire intestinal tract before being expelled.
The pill is still a prototype, but the idea is that it can be used on a large scale. According to the American Heart Association, the failure in following the rules on drugs is the number one problem in treating diseases. In the U.S., 10% of hospitalizations were the result of relapse of patients to follow medication.
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