Scientists have not yet figured out how to miniaturize crack teams of pilots or CIA agents, but they have been able to create ‘smart pill’ technology

In the 1966 science fiction/fantasy movie The Fantastic Voyage, Stephen Boyd, Raquel Welch and company are shrunk down and injected into the body of a scientist in trouble to remove a blood clot in his brain. In 1987, Dennis Quaid and crew are miniaturized and injected into the blood stream of Martin Short.

Dramatic? yes. Entertaining? yes. Funny? yes. Farfetched? Yes – well maybe not so much anymore.  

By smart pill we are not talking about pills designed for cognitive enhancement, but pills that would seem to have a mind of their own. As of November 10, 2010, the Swiss firm of Novartis AG plans to seek regulatory approval within the next 18 months for their ‘smart pill’ which involves a tablet containing an embedded microchip. 

The first pill will be one that helps transplant patients avoid rejection by taking their prescribed medication on time and in the correct dosage.  Norvatis plans to spend $24 million to secure access to chip-in-a-pill technology currently owned by Proteus Biomedical of Redwood City, California. Initially the intended use of the pill is to ensure that patients take their medications at the right time and that they are receiving the correct dosage. 

In the longer term, Novartis hopes that the chip embedded in the pill will be able to collect information from inside the patient and record that bio medical information for the management and treatment of that patient.  

Jerome Schentag, professor of pharmaceutical science at the University of Buffalo, and David D’Andrea were the co-inventors of the computer controlled ‘smart pill’ which can be electronically tracked and instructed to deliver a drug to a predetermined location in the gastrointestinal tract. 

When one of these pills is taken, stomach fluids activate the communication device and sends wireless signals through the body to another chip worn as a skin patch or embedded just under the skin. Data can then be uploaded to a smart phone or sent to a medical practitioner through the Internet.   

With all of its promise, the technology of the smart pill is not without its pitfalls, but providing detailed information to physicians and medical practitioners about their patients appears to have benefits that outweigh any potential disadvantages.

Although smart pills appear to be a bit “Big Brotherish”, never mind that most of us don’t relish the thought of a miniaturized Dennis Quaid coursing through our veins, their features will probably encourage patients to take their meds and take them on time thus resulting in better overall long term health and a much needed break on an already taxed health care system. 

Did you remember to take your pills?

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Leslie Kollar has over 20 years of experience in the health care field in both the U.S. and Canada. She has worked professionally in medical offices and hospital administration, using her BA in Communications/Public Relations and MBA in Marketing. She has also seen the other side of the health care coin as a 15 year cancer survivor. As a survivor she is passionate that each and every person is and should be responsible for their own health - and with this passion she hopes to inspire, inform and educate through HealthWorldNet. Leslie can be reached at LK Communications [email protected]