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View Full Version : Look out ... your medicine is watching you



SassyLady
11-09-2010, 05:41 AM
What do you think about taking a pill that has a microchip that transmits your health information through wireless technology to your doctor.



Novartis AG plans to seek regulatory approval within 18 months for a pioneering tablet containing an embedded microchip, bringing the concept of "smart-pill" technology a step closer.
The initial program will use one of the Swiss firm's established drugs taken by transplant patients to avoid organ rejection. But Trevor Mundel, global head of development, believes the concept can be applied to many other pills.

"We are taking forward this transplant drug with a chip and we hope within the next 18 months to have something that we will be able to submit to the regulators, at least in Europe," Mundel told the Reuters Health Summit in New York.

"I see the promise as going much beyond that," he added.

Novartis agreed in January to spend $24 million to secure access to chip-in-a-pill technology developed by privately owned Proteus Biomedical of Redwood City, California, putting it ahead of rivals.

The biotech start-up's ingestible chips are activated by stomach acid and send information to a small patch worn on the patient's skin, which can transmit data to a smartphone or send it over the Internet to a doctor.

Mundel said the initial project was focused on ensuring that patients took drugs at the right time and got the dose they needed -- a key issue for people after kidney and other transplant operations, when treatment frequently needs adjustment.

Longer-term, he hopes to expand the "smart pill" concept to other types of medicine and use the wealth of biometric information the Proteus chip can collect, from heart rate and temperature to body movement, to check that drugs are working properly.

Because the tiny chips are added to existing drugs, Novartis does not expect to have to conduct full-scale clinical trials to prove the new products work. Instead, it aims to do so-called bioequivalence tests to show they are the same as the original.

A bigger issue may be what checks should be put in place to protect patients' personal medical data as it is transmitted from inside their bodies by wireless and Bluetooth.

"The regulators all like the concept and have been very encouraging. But ... they want to understand how we are going to solve the data privacy issues," Mundel said.

A technology that ensures a patient takes his or her medicine and checks that it is working properly should deliver better outcomes and justify a higher price tag.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6A754720101108


I have lots of questions and concerns about this technology.

Noir
11-09-2010, 06:41 AM
It will become the norm, I memo watching a TEDtalk not too long ago about how developers where designing apps for iPhones that allowed diabetics to have a constant realtime records of there bloodsugar levels and the ability to easily forumulated data into grapghs etc.

The level of application is huge, for example know that your knew partner is STI and STD free but simply glancing at a screen, or catch that new cancer as early as is possible.

The privacy issue will be the problem, especially as the technology is in it's infancy atm. But I think the benefits will outweigh those concerns.

SassyLady
11-09-2010, 08:33 PM
Well, I would love to believe it would be used in a benevolant fashion, but can't help thinking about how easy it would be to put trackers in them so that an individual can be tracked without their knowledge. Just one of the scenarios I can think of.

Noir
11-09-2010, 09:14 PM
Well, I would love to believe it would be used in a benevolant fashion, but can't help thinking about how easy it would be to put trackers in them so that an individual can be tracked without their knowledge. Just one of the scenarios I can think of.

Trufax, although mobile phones are already trackers, and not only do they know where you are, but they know what you say, when, from where, and to whom.

SassyLady
11-09-2010, 09:16 PM
Trufax, although mobile phones are already trackers, and not only do they know where you are, but they know what you say, when, from where, and to whom.

Well, they currently don't know when I going to the bathroom and I'd rather not have that event broadcasted to the airwaves!! :laugh2:

Mr. P
11-10-2010, 12:07 AM
Well, they currently don't know when I going to the bathroom and I'd rather not have that event broadcasted to the airwaves!! :laugh2:
But it's yer farts that give you away! :poke: :laugh::laugh::laugh:

SassyLady
11-10-2010, 01:05 AM
But it's yer farts that give you away! :poke: :laugh::laugh::laugh:

:laugh2: