Smart Pills That Track When You’ve Taken Your Meds Approved In The US

Smart Pills That Track When You’ve Taken Your Meds Approved In The US


Remembering if you’ve taken your medication could be a thing of the past now that the US Federal Drug Administrain has approved Proteus Digital Health’s new chip-embedded pills that can report back to a sensor and your smartphone when meds have been ingested.

The tiny silicon-based chips are no larger than a grain of sand and contain trace amounts of magnesium and copper. When swallowed and exposed to digestive juices, those materials produce a slight voltage, which can be detected by a special skin patch and relayed to a smartphone. It not only serves as a foolproof reminder as to if and when you’ve taken a pill, but it also allows healthcare providers to know for sure if medication has been taken by a patient who has trouble caring for themselves.

However, the approval granted by the FDA and Europe’s regulatory body are only based on successful studies where the pill was embedded in a placebo. But the company is confident that it should work just as well with actual medications, and is anticipating further approvals in the near future. [Proteus Digital Health via Nature via Popular Science]


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