Your medication might start tattling on you if you skip a dose.<\/p>\n
Scientists at MIT have developed a groundbreaking smart pill<\/a> that can wirelessly report the moment it\u2019s been swallowed, giving doctors a way to monitor whether patients are taking their prescriptions on schedule.<\/p>\n It may sound simple, but the stakes are high. Studies show<\/a> that half of all Americans with chronic conditions don\u2019t take their long-term medications as prescribed.<\/p>\n Not taking medicines as directed by a healthcare provider can have serious consequences, including worsening disease and premature death. Satjawat \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n The fallout is staggering: in the US, poor adherence contributes to 125,000 potentially preventable deaths<\/a>, drives 25% of hospitalizations<\/a> and racks up more than $500 billion in avoidable healthcare costs<\/a> each year.<\/p>\n People skip their medications for many reasons<\/a>: high costs, fear of side effects<\/a>, confusing instructions \u2014 and, for many, simple forgetfulness.<\/p>\n \u201cThe goal is to make sure that this helps people receive the therapy they need to help maximize their health,\u201d Giovanni Traverso<\/a>, an associate professor of medical engineering and the senior author of the study, told MIT News<\/a>.\u00a0 <\/p>\n In the past, Traverso\u2019s lab developed capsules that can remain in the digestive tract for days or weeks, releasing medication on a set schedule. But the approach isn\u2019t suitable for every drug. <\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve developed systems that can stay in the body for a long time, and we know that those systems can improve adherence, but we also recognize that for certain medications, we can\u2019t change the pill,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n \u201cThe question becomes: What else can we do to help the person and help their health care providers ensure that they\u2019re receiving the medication?\u201d<\/p>\n The answer: radio frequency (RF), a type of signal that can be easily detected from outside the body and is safe for humans. <\/p>\n The smart pills developed by MIT scientists are known as \u201cSAFARI\u201d capsules. Courtesy of the Researchers\/MIT<\/p>\n While other scientists have tried to develop RF-enabled pills, their devices used non-degradable components that had to pass through the digestive system, increasing the risk of potential blockages.<\/p>\n Traverso and his colleagues solved that problem by designing a pill whose RF antenna is made from zinc and embedded in cellulose, rolled up and placed inside the medication capsule.<\/p>\n The capsule\u2019s outer layer, made of gelatin coated with cellulose and either molybdenum or tungsten, blocks the RF signal until the pill reaches the stomach and begins to break down.<\/p>\n \u201cWe chose these materials recognizing their very favorable safety profiles and also environmental compatibility,\u201d Traverso explained. <\/p>\n Once swallowed, stomach acid begins dissolving the protective coating, releasing both the drug and the device into the body. The antenna can then pick up an RF signal from an external receiver and, with the help of a tiny RF chip, send back confirmation that the pill has been ingested.<\/p>\n \u201cThe components are designed to break down over days using materials with well-established safety profiles, such as zinc and cellulose, which are already widely used in medicine,\u201d said Mehmet Girayhan Sayan, MIT research scientist and lead author of the paper. <\/p>\n The RF chip, about 400 by 400 micrometers, is the only part of the pill that isn\u2019t biodegradable, but tests show it passes safely through the digestive tract.<\/p>\n \u201cOur goal is to avoid long-term accumulation while enabling reliable confirmation that a pill was taken, and longer-term safety will continue to be evaluated as the technology moves toward clinical use,\u201d Sayan said.<\/p>\n To test the concept, the MIT team tried the capsules \u2014 called \u201cSAFARI devices\u201d \u2014 in five female domestic pigs, whose digestive systems are similar to humans. <\/p>\n Nearly the entire next-generation medication delivery system dissolves in the digestive tract. Nadzeya \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n After digestion, the researchers found that the coating dissolved and the devices had activated, with the RF signal successfully transmitted from their stomachs and read by an external receiver up to two feet away.<\/p>\n After being digested, they found that the coating dissolved and the devices activated, transmitting the RF signal from the pigs\u2019 stomachs to an external receiver up to two feet away.<\/p>\n Looking ahead, the researchers envision designing a wearable device<\/a> for humans that could receive the signal and relay it directly to the patient\u2019s healthcare providers.<\/p>\n But don\u2019t expect to be swallowing smart pills anytime soon.<\/p>\n Despite the promising early results, the devices will need extensive testing in humans to confirm their safety and effectiveness before they can be approved.<\/p>\n The researchers will also need to figure out how to scale up production so these carefully engineered capsules can be manufactured and used more widely.<\/p>\n Even if that happens, it\u2019s unlikely that every prescription will be delivered via a SAFARI device, which will almost certainly be expensive to produce.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to prioritize medications that, when non-adherence is present, could have a really detrimental effect for the individual,\u201d Traverso said. <\/p>\n That could include people who have recently had organ transplants and need immunosuppressant drugs to prevent their bodies from rejecting the new organ<\/a>, the researchers noted. <\/p>\n Other potential candidates include people with neuropsychiatric disorders, whose conditions may make it harder to take medications consistently, as well as patients with infections such as HIV<\/a> or tuberculosis<\/a>, where missing doses can significantly worsen disease progression.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your medication might start tattling on you if you skip a dose. Scientists at MIT have developed a…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":506931,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[83332,210,10832,1060,41604,11825,16978,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-506930","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-medication","8":"tag-chronic-illness","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-inventions","11":"tag-medication","12":"tag-mit","13":"tag-prescription-drugs","14":"tag-study-says","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115872702456699492","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=506930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506930\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/506931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=506930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=506930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=506930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}