Monitor Medication Adherence From Inside Your Patients

By Katie Wike, contributing writer

Digital pills that transmit data to caregivers and providers via Bluetooth may be the next hot trend in patient monitoring.

Digital placebo pills that can send data to caregivers and providers through Bluetooth technology could be the next trend in tracking medication adherence. According to a report from Kaiser Health News, managing medications can be overwhelming at best, but these “ingestibles” can aid those with chronic illnesses in keeping track of their medications.

These pills contain nanomeds, sensors embedded in the placebo which are activated through contact with saliva and gastric juices. As they work their way through the system, the digital pills transmit data to another sensor worn outside the body, which looks like a Band-Aid.

“We are entering the commercial era of the Internet of Things (IoT) – your car, your clothes, and increasingly your personal care products are going to be connected,” says Andrew Thompson, CEO of Proteus Digital Health, which makes these “ingestibles.”

Thompson says the goal is to connect major health systems to consumers “to allow them to switch on their own health care, creating critical information that can be used to ensure they and their doctors make positive decisions about use of medicines and personal health choices.”

iHealth Beat reports the pills track medication adherence as well as heart rate and other data. The data can be sent directly to Bluetooth enabled smartphones.

Health IT Outcomes reported last year that one such device in development was called Helius, by Proteus Digital Health. “This signal is transmitted to a patch that is placed on the skin of a patient. This patch can monitor the use of medication as well as heart rate, temperature, and respiration. For people who are worried about swallowing a sensor to monitor their health, it is about the size of a grain of sand,” explained the company.