The pharmaceutical sector is experiencing an intriguing transformation, the convergence of medicine and microelectronics. Smart pills or digital pills are a significant step toward individualized and technology-based healthcare.
These pills contain ingestible sensors that turn on in response to contact with fluids in the stomach, sending information to a wearable patch or smartphone. This enables healthcare providers to track adherence, time of dosage, and physiological measures in real time. The idea was first approved in 2017, when the FDA approved Abilify MyCite, an aripiprazole tablet with an embedded digital sensor to monitor ingestion.
In addition to tracking adherence, scientists are currently investigating the use of smart pills as a tool for monitoring gastrointestinal pH, temperature, and motility, providing diagnostic information previously attainable by invasive means.
The technology, however, is not without obstacles. Challenges such as data privacy, informed patient consent, expense, and over-surveillance are still chief hurdles. And putting such digital devices into the hands of healthcare practitioners on a daily basis requires robust regulatory systems and ethical scrutiny.
As pharma heads toward an AI, IoT, and nanotechnology-powered future, intelligent pills can transform the way drugs are made, prescribed, and tracked. The long-term vision is to close the loop between drug delivery and digital health so that therapy becomes not only effective, but smart.
Will smart pills transform patient compliance and disease monitoring, or will ethical and economic hurdles prevent their widespread adoption?
MBH/AB