Seeking a way to confirm that patients have taken their medication, University of Florida engineering researchers have added a tiny microchip and digestible antenna to a standard pill capsule. The prototype is intended to pave the way for mass-produced pills that, when ingested, automatically alert doctors, loved ones or scientists working with patients in clinical drug trials.
“It is a way to monitor whether your patient is taking their medication in a timely manner,” said Rizwan Bashirullah, UF assistant professor in electrical and computer engineering.
Such a pill is needed because many patients forget, refuse or bungle the job of taking their medication. This causes or exacerbates medical problems, spurs hospitalizations or expensive medical procedures and undercuts clinical trials of new drugs.
How to cope with this technology turned against us? Before getting captured and put into a psychiatric mental hospital for those who resist state authority we are going to need to get microchip implants that enhance the liver's ability to break down ingested drugs.
| Share | | Randall Parker, 2010 March 31 11:59 PM Bioethics Privacy |
I don't think this has anything to do with insane asylums. They mentioned clinical trials, and it would also be good to make sure that patients take their antibiotics and antiretrovirals consistently, because bugs can develop resistance if you're half-assed about taking them. They already have a program to make sure certain patients take their TB drugs:
http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/idepc/diseases/tb/dot.html
It looks like the way this works is that there's an antenna in the pills that is destroyed in your body. If you really wanted to fake it you could, but it would be easier just to take the pill. It's more for lazy patients. If you want to make somebody take their psych meds, give them a depot shot like this one (needed once every 2 weeks): http://www.janssen.com/products_risperdal-consta.html
"I don't think this has anything to do with insane asylums. They mentioned clinical trials, and it would also be good to make sure that patients take their antibiotics and antiretrovirals consistently, because bugs can develop resistance if you're half-assed about taking them."
Or, in my experience, when the doctor inexplicably keeps prescribing them for too short a period to completely resolve the infection. I've twice had a respiratory infection return because my doctor wouldn't prescribe more than five days of antibiotics for it, despite that not cutting it the last time. Why? It came in a five day package!
I'm sick of doctors trying to blame all of this on the patients. Are the patients responsible for hospitals cross-contaminating them, so as to breed multiply resistant strains? Are patients responsible for the fact that, if you stay in a hospital for very long, you may well die of an infection you didn't have coming in? Antibiotics made the medical profession lazy about sterile procedure, and they still haven't gotten serious enough about it again. They ought to look in a mirror, their hands aren't clean, either. Literally.
I have always wondered how someone wrongly accused of being insane can get out of an insane asylum. After all, getting angry, showing strident insistence, yelling and shouting to be let out, or refusing to cooperate would be taken as signs of insanity. As would being very calm about the situation (it would be an abnormal reaction). It is a catch 22 situation.