Digital Pills

The FDA recently approved a pill that will send an alert when the pill is actually taken, according to a recent article in The Inquirer. The pill contains a tiny sensor about the size of a grain of sand. When the pill is swallowed, acid in the stomach activates the sensor to send a signal to a skin patch worn by the patient. The patch then notifies a cell phone that the medication has been taken.

The first digital pill is expected to contain a drug used to treat schizophrenia and other serious illnesses - conditions in which patient compliance is often an issue. But one can envision all kinds of uses of the technology. Of course the pill raises issues of privacy and of how the ability to collect data about your pill use might lead to coercion. What if, for example, health insurers were to "incentivize" you by lowering the price for pills with sensors to get you to use them? How would they use the data they could collect on you? What if they were to insist on receiving data about your medication compliance as a condition of future health care? These are issues that should be considered before digital pill use becomes widespread, not after.

On the other hand, digital pills might be a real help for people who want to be compliant but just can't remember to take their medications, such as the aged. Like any new technology, it'll be how we use it that will determine its ultimate usefulness.

Of course, pills with embedded sensors will cost more, too...