Smart pill transmits from stomach and intestine
Swallowable sensors provide continuously measured physiological data from the digestive tract, which can indicate diseases.
Smart pill for oral intake.
(Image: IMEC)
In a live self-experiment in front of almost 2,000 spectators, researcher Aniek Even swallowed a smart pill that measures the temperature, pH value and redox potential in her stomach. Even then drank a glass of hot and cold water one after the other to demonstrate the function of the sensor capsule: The measured values transmitted wirelessly from her body changed accordingly.
The smart pill travels through the digestive tract. It transmits new readings every 20 seconds for at least 24 hours to a portable data logger the size of a pack of cigarettes. This stores the measured values and can be worn on the body with a neck or waist belt. The redox potential protocol is intended to be used in the diagnosis of chronic inflammatory bowel diseases, for example.
The technology is intended to avoid some medical examinations that are stressful for patients, tie up specialist staff, take a lot of time and are therefore expensive. Gastroscopies and colonoscopies can also require some preparation. Before a thorough colonoscopy, for example, patients have to drink plenty of unappetizing laxatives and are not allowed to eat anything. The examinations are also associated with risks, for example due to injuries or as a result of any necessary anesthesia.
Moreover, endoscopic sampling only provides a snapshot. The smart pill, on the other hand, provides continuous measurements from the digestive tract over at least one day and from the normal lifestyle of the person being examined.
(Image: c’t Magazin, C. Windeck)
Years of development
Of course, the swallowable sensor only measures a few physiological values. It also does not provide any images, unlike the so-called capsule endoscopy, for which a tiny camera is swallowed. With this method, however, the bowel must be empty and therefore does not work in the same way as in everyday life. It is primarily used to examine the small intestine, which cannot be mirrored normally.
The Ingestible Technologies Project at the OnePlanet Research Center of the Belgian IMEC has been working on the smart pill for more than five years. It is looking for cooperation partners to develop the smart pill to market maturity. Aniek Even is Senior Researcher and Project Lead Ingestible Technology. She started her self-experiment at the IMEC event ITF World 2025 in Antwerp.
(Image: c’t Magazin, C. Windeck)
Other smart pills
A team at MIT is also researching a smart pill for diagnosing chronic inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) such as Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. A vibrating "weight loss pill" that triggers a feeling of satiety serves other purposes.
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A technique introduced in 2012 is used to check whether and when tablets have been swallowed. For this purpose, a chip about the size of a grain of sand is embedded in the respective medication, which generates energy with the help of gastric juice. A patch on the patient's skin contains a data logger that records the intake.
The Japanese pharmaceutical company Otsuka launched the drug Abilify MyCite with the active ingredient aripiprazole and built-in chip on the US market in 2017. The neuroleptic aripiprazole is used to treat schizophrenia. According to the European Medicines Agency (EMA), Otsuka withdrew its application for approval in the EU in mid-2020.
(ciw)
