Miracle pill
This photo is taken from from Mail Online.
Worried that Mum’s forgotten to take her medication today? Well, soon
there will be no need to be – because scientists have invented a pill
that sends a text to say it has been swallowed.
Doctors believe the novel device could prolong countless lives and
save the NHS millions by cutting the amount of medicines that go to
waste.
Each of the ‘texting pills’ contains a tiny metal sensor, the size of
a grain of sand, that emits a signal when it gets wet in the stomach.
It then passes harmlessly through the body.
The pill’s signal is picked up by a patch on the arm, which transmits
the message by wireless Bluetooth technology to the person’s mobile.
The phone then texts the patient’s contacts – such as a loved-one and their doctor or nurse – telling them it has been taken.
Lloydspharmacy and Oxford University have been involved in UK pilots
of the technology, called Helius, which is being developed by US firm
Proteus Digital Health.
Professor Lionel Tarassenko, from the university’s Institute of
Biomedical Engineering, said: ‘Elderly people sometimes have to take
six, seven, or eight pills a day.
‘But if someone doesn’t take their pills that can be a very, very
serious thing. If you have an elderly parent who is not taking their
pills, you might want to know.’
He is hoping to start a UK trial next year using the texting pills with heart failure patients.
So far he has been limited to testing the patch itself, which can
track and relay other information about the patient such as their pulse,
activity levels and sleeping patterns.
Lloydspharmacy has completed a UK pilot with patients who have high
blood pressure. They often need to take several medicines a day.
The test-run – like others in the US – has involved patients taking
an extra ‘dummy pill’, containing just the sensor, in addition to their
medication.
But Proteus soon hopes to embed their tiny sensors in pills containing active drugs.
CEO Andrew Thomson said: ‘When you swallow one of our digital drugs
it will say, “Hello I’m here, I’m Novartis, I’m Diovan, 1.2mg, I’m from
plant number 76, I’m batch number 12 and I’m pill number two.” ’ He
claimed the invention could save the NHS ‘hundreds of millions of
pounds’.
A university study found we spend £300 million a year on medicines
that end up being thrown away. Part of the wastage is due to people not
taking medication, called ‘non-compliance’. The texting pills could
combat a number of serious ailments, from mental health problems to
tuberculosis, added Prof Tarassenko.
He said: ‘TB patients have to take a six-month course of pills. Part
of the problem is that after three or four months the patients feel so
much better they stop taking them. But they are not cured by then and
it’s very important that they keep taking the medication.’
Privacy campaigners do have concerns about the security of sensitive health data generated by the sensor pills.
But the academic said: ‘Personally, I believe it’s utterly ludicrous to think that way.
‘I ask them if they do internet banking and of course 99 per cent say
yes. And anything to do with healthcare data has at least the same
level of security as internet banking does.’
A Lloydspharmacy spokesman said its pilot had generated ‘very
positive feedback’ from patients, their families and health
professionals.
It wants to get NHS doctors to recommend the technology to appropriate patients.
Motion sensors, blood-pressure monitors and even machines that screen
for diseases like diabetes from the comfort of your living room are
already part of thousands of British homes.
Two years ago David Cameron publicly backed tele-health: remote monitoring that allows vital checks by these gadgets.
Everything is sent to a call centre which can tell if a prescription
needs tweaking, or if a family member or the doctor needs to be called.
It sounds like sci-fi, but early trial results have been promising, showing a drop in emergency admissions.
Everything is sent to a call centre which can tell if a prescription
needs tweaking, or if a family member or the doctor needs to be called
There are more than 15 million Britons who have a chronic condition that requires self-management.
It’s early days for the Helius, but ingestible microchip tablets that tell the doctor they’ve been taken may prove valuable.
Coming up with a drug for an illness is just part of the battle. One
of the biggest difficulties is actually getting patients to take them.
Figures show up to half of patients don’t. The beauty of this
technology is that we would be perfectly clear what dose and regime our
patients were using.
This could be especially effective in elderly patients with mental health problems.
But the new technology is far from perfect. At the moment the
microchip is contained within an extra dummy pill. If it’s hard enough
to get Mum to take five pills, is adding another really making life
simpler? And what if she gets confused and takes the dummy, and not the
real pill?
I’m all for scientific advance, but it mustn’t overshadow often
cheaper basics. Perhaps there are simpler ways to help patients, such as
a humble dosette box and an alarm clock.
As exciting as it is, I envisage a long wait before this technology is part of my daily routine in clinic.
Credits goes to
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A British zoo yesterday said it has banned visitors from wearing leopard or zebra print clothes because they are confusing the animals.
A British zoo yesterday said it has banned visitors from wearing leopard or zebra print clothes because they are confusing the animals.
