Philips camera pill easy to swallow

Philips Research is out with a new intelligent camera pill that can be electronically preprogrammed to deliver targeted doses of medicine to patients with digestive disorders such as Crohn's disease, colitis, and colon cancer.

Don't worry, this is not a life-size representation of the tiny Philips iPill.

(Credit: Philips)

The device comes in the form of an 11 mm x 26 mm capsule that patients swallow with water, just like any other pill. It's designed to pass through the digestive tract of its own accord, meaning you just let nature take its course with this one.

The iPill determines its location via a pH sensor that measures the acidity of the environment, which varies throughout the intestinal tract. The device then releases medicine from its drug reservoir via a microprocessor-controlled pump--either in a burst or a progressive release. Philips says the smart pill can also deliver medicine to multiple locations.

Announced at the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists' annual meeting and exposition this week in Atlanta, the capsule is also designed to measure data such as local temperature, and report measurements wirelessly to an external receiver unit.

While its drug delivery system appears promising, the Philips iPill is not the first camera pill to enter the picture. Among other such products, GivenImaging created the PillCam Colon Capsule Endoscope for viewing the colon, as well the PillCam ESO for the esophagus and the PillCam SB for the gastrointestinal tract.

[ecotony]

Yummy. Better than the endoscope, if you get good pictures.

[John_Johnson]

Have fun recovering it

[ckurowic]

"iPill?". The "i" made famous by Apple originally stood for "internet", so what gives?

[Greg5A]

Not only good luck recovering this "pill," but also good luck swallowing it because it is almost a half-inch wide and slightly over an inch long. That is one big "horse pill."

[knowles2]

Apple made putting i at the beginning of anything, cool so now all the marketing guys are nicking it to make their product look cool.

or perhaps you can up load it journey through your body to the internet or something and may be it was suppose to record videos so you can upload it to youtube.
May be it interactive or something., I do not know.

[Harrison912]

Very Cool! As a web site owner of safety and security products, among which are hidden cameras, this one takes "hidden camera" to a whole new level.

[mtwohig49]

For a study at Cleveland Clinic, I took the "pill cam" for a preoperational check of the the Esophagus on Oct.26th,2009 and again, two days later, after my cardiac procedure. It was used to check for possible radiation burns which are possible, since the heart is so close to the Esophagus.
The pillcam was easy to swollow, and it worked wonderful.
WE watched pre-op pics in real time on a laptop as the camera took hundreds of pictures as it was traveling slowly thru the Esophagus.
Thankfully everything was fine, before and after my heart opreration.
For a pill to deliver targeted doses of medicine to patients with digestive disorders such as Crohn's disease,this is going to make Philips a big hit.