Electronic Pills - Collecting Data Inside The Body

After years of investment and development, wireless devices contained in swallowable capsules are now reaching the market. At some situations, doctors can’t easily detect diseases and hence it becomes too late to cure it. Use of electronic pill helps us to easily detect the diseases and can take suddenaction against it.  In 1972, Professor John Cooper and Dr. Eric Johannessen from Glasgow University, U.K has led to the development of          electronic pill.  Companies such as SmartPill based in Buffalo, New York and Israel-based Given Imaging (PillCam) market capsules the size of vitamin tablets.These pills contain sensors or tiny cameras that collect information as they travel through the gastrointestinal tract before being excreted from the body a day or two later.It is a medical monitoring system. Measurement parameters of electronic pills include temperature analysis, pH measurements, conductivity and dissolved oxygen. And they can also capture images and sent it into Doctor's system. Doctors often use invasive methods such as catheters, endoscopic instruments or radioisotopes for collecting information about the digestive tract. So device companies have been developing easier,  less intruisive ways to gather information.Digestive diseases and disorders can include symptoms such as acid reflux, bloating, heartburn, abdominal pain, constipation, difficulty swallowing or loss of appetite."One of the main challenges is determining just what is happening in the stomach and intestines." says Dr. Anish A. Sheth, Director of the Gastrointestinal Motility Program at Yale-New Haven Hospital. Doctors can inspect the colon and peer into the stomach using endoscopic instruments. But some areas cannot be easily viewed, and finding out how muscles are working can be difficult. Electronic pills are being used to measure muscle contraction, ease of passage and other factors to reveal information unavailable in the past.

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 When it moves through gastro-intestinal track it starts to detect diseases and abnormalities. A small electronic pill can easily reach areas such as small intestine and large intestine and can deliver real time information to an external system. Total information will be displayed in a monitor. The electronic pill travels to the digestive system, collects data and sends it into the computer with a distance of 1 meter and more. Main parts of electronic pills are four sensors, an ASIC chip, a radio transmitter and a power source.

Sources: givenimaging.com smartpillcorp.com