Swallow Technology, receive Data !

“You have to take the medication 3 times a day” the doctor said. A few days later I stumbled upon the fact that I forgot to take my medication regularly and on time. Fortunately it wasn’t a big issue, but what if someone with diabetes forget to take his medication or someone who has had surgery and forgot to take multiple medications for important health issues?

Development

Based on the problem mentioned above, there have been numerous innovations to monitor and control the use of medication, but none of them took an active role in ‘drug’ delivery.

Medimetrics, a spinoff from Philips , developed the IntelliCap; world’s first intelligent oral drug delivery and monitoring system. The IntelliCap capsule combines five technologies in one device. Besides the already existing technology of monitoring by swallowing electronic pills that are connected to a patch on the body, the IntelliCap is capable of pumping fluids, pastes or suspensions to the right place at the right amount.  This is done by a sensor inside the pill that measures the pH and temperature of the pill’s local environment in combination with an radio transceiver that makes it possible to communicate real-time data to a data-monitoring/control unit and vice versa.

A networked Pill.

Combining the technology of the IntelliCap with the ability to monitor and communicate a person’s wellbeing in an application could be used to create new business models. A doctor could adjust the amount of medicine, decide to take another medicine or stop the use of medicine from behind his desk based on the health information gathered from the Intellicap. From the patient perspective, they may feel more confidence when sent home after surgery knowing that the doctor monitors the patients wellbeing on the application. This also creates the opportunity to cut costs at the customers for staying more nights at the hospital.

The IntelliCap while also open new doors for the pharmaceutical business as the information gathered could be an important tool for drug research. Due to the feedback it will be possible to monitor the results of different drug administrations. This may help improve drug candidate profiling and selection, as well as accelerating the development of new drugs in a more efficient way at a lower cost base.

The questions that arises in my head, who should be able to buy and use these electronic pills fancying that it may be used in an unappropriated way ? So, could this electronic pill be the breakthrough for changing current business model in the pharmaceutical industry and/or could it be the new way doctors help their patients from behind the desk based on gathered data received from the Intellicap ?

 

Sources:

Medimetrics : http://medimetrics.com/Home

Philips Research Lab : http://www.research.philips.com/initiatives/intellicap/applications-pharma.html