Would you really want to ingest a computer? Indeed, you read that correctly! In general, electronics are not meant to be consumed. They are made of poisonous and indigestible substances that can cause major internal damage if they become lodged un a person’s digestive system. However, scientists all over the world are working on developing edible electronics. Edible electronics is one such subfield of electronics.
But what exactly are these “edible electronics,” and why would anyone want to eat them? Keep reading to find out the details.
There have been several developments in recent years that have the potential to revolutionize the medical industry, but electronic pill technology is here to stay and is now at the top of the list. The development of electronic pill technology has helped to close the gap between engineering and medicine. There have been many shifts, but scientists all over the world are continuously developing cutting-edge methods that will revolutionize how doctors assess and treat patients.
Understanding what’s going on in a patient’s digestive tract is a major issue for modern medicine because of the complexity of the human body as a whole. They are using endoscopic devices to examine the patient’s stomach and intestines. However, some parts of the stomach and intestines are not easily seen using this traditional method, making it difficult for doctors to diagnose the underlying problem.
Physicians and patients alike can benefit from electronic pills. These technologically advanced tablets will help physicians make more precise diagnoses in less time. Since these pills have cut down on unneeded procedures and are much more comfortable monitoring methods, patients are also breathing a sigh of relief.
What is an Electronic Pill?
The electronic pill is a tiny electronic device the size of a capsule that aids doctors in diagnosing and treating gastrointestinal conditions such as ulcers, malabsorption disorders, ulcerative colitis, inflammatory bowel disease, and perforated ulcers.
To put it another way, an electronic pill is a tiny pill equipped with an ingestible sensor that immediately begins communicating the patient’s medical data once it has been swallowed. These pills can endure the stomach’s acidity and provide doctors with data on body temperature, pH, and even blood pressure.
The raw video data may be transmitted without compression using wideband technology, resulting in low power consumption, reduced delay in real time, and higher picture quality in this little pill. An electronic pill promises to make patients’ life easier by eliminating the need for invasive diagnostic procedures like catheterization, endoscopy, colonoscopy, and the use of radioisotopes.
Electronic Pills – How it all started to where we are today
In 1957, Mackay created the first radio-telemetry capsule with a single transistor, ushering in the era of swallowable electronics. In 1972, researchers John Cooper and Eric Johannessen from Glasgow University in the United Kingdom created the first electronic pill. Many studies and innovations have been made since then.
In the 1990s, technology finally caught up to invention. However, the development of edible electronics was hampered by the fact that many of its individual parts, such as batteries, contain chemicals that are toxic to people. To get over these obstacles, scientists developed a sensor that can be swallowed whole, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave it the green light in 2012.The first digital pill, Abilify MyCite (aripiprazole tablet manufactured by Otsuka Pharmaceutical), was approved by the FDA in November 2017.
While Children’s Health in Dallas, Texas was the first to commercially employ electronic tablets with pediatric patients, Barton Health was the first to sell them to adults in January 2016 to treat patients with chronic medical issues.
Researchers are finally making electronic pills a reality, but the concept has been around for quite some time. Due to the increasing incidence of gastrointestinal (GI) illnesses and the buoyant health industry, North America and Europe are the world’s leading markets for electronic pills. The development of cutting-edge technologies for early identification of gastrointestinal illnesses has had a profound impact on these areas.
The global market for electronic pills was $779.9 million in 2016, and it is projected to reach $3 billion by 2025. Researchers want to one day produce electronic pills equipped with sensors that monitor vital signs like heart rate and respiration rate. Many different firms, including IntroMedic, Medimetrics S.A., Medisafe, Medtronic, Olympus Corporation, Proteus Digital Health, CapsoVision, Inc., Bio-Images Research Limited, Given Imaging, etc., are now developing and manufacturing Electronic Pills. Additionally, EnteraSense, headquartered in Galway, Ireland, is a pre-revenue company creating electronic tablets for use in GI monitoring.
What is inside an Electronic Pill?
The many parts that make up an electronic pill include a control chip, silver oxide cells, a radio transmitter, and sensors. All of these ingredients are put together in a tiny pill that is simple to take and quickly digested by the body.
The multichannel sensors built into the electronic pill allow for comprehensive and precise illness analysis. Common sensors found in electronic pills include a pH ion-sensitive field-effect transistor (ISFET) (used for measuring ion concentration in solutions), a temperature sensor (used to determine the internal body temperature), a conductivity sensor (with two electrodes to determine electrical resistance), and an oxygen sensor (with three electrodes to determine the rate of dissolved oxygen and the presence of aerobic bacteria in the small and large intestines).The electronic pill’s many sensors report to an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) that also performs analog signal conditioning.
Types of Electronic pills
Electronic pills can be roughly divided in half based on whether or not it has a built-in camera or sensor. Different varieties of electronic tablets exist, each with its own set of features for things like imaging, gas sensing, drug compliance monitoring, and electrochemical signal sensing.
- Imaging Pills: These pills contain video cameras and are used for generating images of the macroscopic structures of organs like the stomach and small bowel.
- Medication Monitoring Pills: Used for monitoring the absorption of medication or compliance sends the signal that the user needs to take the medicine. These are activated in the stomach by pH differences and transmit via Bluetooth.
- Gas Sensing Pills: Used to detect the partial-pressures of different gasses produced as the byproduct of metabolic reactions by bacteria in the intestines.
- Electrochemical Sensing Pills: Used in performing cyclic, square wave, and differential pulse voltammetry. Voltammetry is used in vitro on stool liquid as a Gi tract diagnostic tool.
How does Electronic Pill work?
The electronic pill is swallowed and moves through the digestive tract, taking pictures as it goes.The pill begins identifying diseases and anomalies as it travels through the digestive tract. The pill can deliver real-time data to the screen, as it travels through the digestive tract and reaches the small and large intestines. From a distance of one meter or more, the electronic pill reaches the digestive system, gathers information, and transmits it to the computer.
Where does the electronic pill go?
If you’ve been reading about electronic pills, you might be wondering: What happens to the pill after it’s swallowed? Does it stay in the patient’s body?
The doctor can use the data collected by the electronic pill as it makes its way through the digestive tract, including measurements of acidity, pressure, and temperature, as well as photos of the esophagus and intestines. After that, it travels down into the colon and leaves the body in a bowel movement a day or two later.
Advantages and Conclusion
There will be a dramatic shift away from conventional medicine as a result of the introduction of electronic medications. To begin with, the pill is rather modest in size, making it convenient for patients to take orally. In addition, it uses very little energy. This electronic pill has a number of drawbacks, the most significant being its high price and limited availability. It also has no way of identifying radiation anomalies.
While some of us may have reservations about the potential risks and drawbacks, the fact remains that miraculous electronic pills are here to stay. They have effectively combined diagnosis and therapy, and cutting-edge innovations like ‘Electronic Pills’ are having a profound effect on people’s lives, bringing revolutionary change to the healthcare system while ensuring patients’ maximum comfort.