Edible Microchips That Are 'Good for Your Health'

Ingestible chips, like these made by Proteus Biomedical,
enter the body and send data to smartphones, 01/17/12.
(photo: Michael Sugrue/Proteus)

By Steve Connor, The Independent UK

17 January 12

Pharmacy to sell edible microchips that will alert doctors if patients are not taking right medicines.

n American biomedical company has signed up with a British healthcare firm to sell digestible sensors, each smaller than a grain of sand, that can trigger the transmission of medical information from a patient's body to the mobile phone of a relative or carer.

The aim is to develop a suite of "intelligent medicines" that can help patients and their carers keep track of which pills are taken at what time of day, in order to ensure that complex regimes of drugs are given the best possible chance of working effectively.

Ultimately, the plan is for every one of the many pills taken each day by some of the most chronically-ill patients, especially those with mental health problems, to be digitally time-stamped as they are digested within the body.

The healthcare company Lloyds- pharmacy said it intends to sell the edible microchips of Proteus Biomedical of California by the end of the year, as part of a trial to test whether NHS patients would be prepared to pay privately to ensure that they or their relatives take the right medicines at the right time.    READ MORE