Chip to Find Out Patients Stomach Contents

A drug company has found a chip that can be eaten and know the ingredients in the patient's abdomen. The chip is made with the aim to alert patients and physicians if patients do not take medication regularly. The chip will record the details of the pills that have been swallowed by the patient appropriately. The device is smaller than a grain of sand, and can trigger the transmission of medical information from the patient's body to a cell phone family or caregiver. 

The goal is to develop a 'smart drug' that can help patients and caregivers to keep track of what pill is taken and when to drink it. This tool can ensure that the complex substances of the drug is able to work effectively. 

Lloyds pharmacy companies from the UK intends to sell microchips made by Proteus Biomedical California later this year. The company will test whether patients in the UK is ready to pay to ensure that they or their families to take medicine properly. 

"There is a big problem if the drugs are not taken properly. Anyone who prescribed several drugs to know how easy it is to forget to take medication or forgetting to take tablets is right," said Steve Gray, director of health services Lloyds pharmacy. 

According to Gray, the World Health Organization (WHO) has found that about half of all patients fail to take the medicine properly. This can lead to patients not getting the full benefit of treatment, or cause dangerous side effects. The drugs are not used is estimated to cost? 400 million in almost a year. 

As reported by The Independent, Wednesday (18/01/2012), Proteus developed technology is based on sensors that can be digested. The sensor consists of ingredients commonly found in foods and is activated when in contact with gastric fluid. 

This is the core technology that separates the small silicon small amounts of copper and magnesium, which effectively forms a microscopic battery that generates electrical current when immersed in the acidic stomach environment. 

This electric current can be fitted individually specific information to be matched with drugs taken by a sensor that can be eaten and is detected by a skin patch attached to the patient. Patches or patch it works the way the leather patch on the electrocardiogram (ECG) to record electrical currents on the heart. 

The patch is designed to be worn for seven days, including a flexible battery and a chip that records the information and sends it to the Bluetooth technology to mobile caregivers, family, or doctors. 

 "In the future, the goal is to create a fully integrated system and to create information products that help patients and families to meet the demands of complex treatment. We have created a lot of drugs with great potential, but a lot of potential is not realized because the drug is not used correctly, "said Andrew Thompson, chief executive and founder of Proteus Biomedical.

(lmh/ed.bj)