6 August 2009

Take two digital pills and call me in the morning

Hospitals are costly places. Andrew Thompson's Silicon Valley start-up, Proteus Biomedical Inc., is testing a miniature digestible chip that attaches to conventional medication.

It sends a signal that confirms whether patients are taking their prescribed pills. A sensing device worn on the skin uses wireless technology to relay that information to doctors, along with readings about patients’ vital signs.

A digital chip planted on a conventional pill Source: Proteus Biomedical Corventis’s wireless sensor monitors patients on the go.

Thompson said he predicts the company’s technology will generate a wealth of new information about patients’ evolving conditions and the impact of drugs they take.

Doctors might decide to intervene, for example, when they notice a heart patient is not sleeping well or is taking incorrect dosages.

Proteus is not alone. Dozens of large and small companies are turning to wireless technology to achieve what the Obama administration is seeking through legislation—a health-care system that keeps people healthier for less.

“Wireless applications have the potential to change every one of these areas,” said Eric Topol, a cardiologist and genomics professor at Scripps Research Institute.

A 2008 study by a coalition of organizations that support health-care reform estimates annual savings from remote monitoring at $10.1 billion for U.S. sufferers of congestive heart failure, $6.1 billion for diabetes, and $4.9 billion for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Chipmakers, seeing medical applications as a big new market, are racing to make body-monitoring devices more capable and less expensive. Qualcomm Inc., known for its cell phone chips, is also developing low-power variants for wearable medical applications.

For related information, go to www.isa.org/sensors.