AST 'CHAMPIONS' Edition December 2017 Digital-Dec2 | Page 73

Digital Pills Help Doctors Track RX
Opioid Painkiller Use
The ID-Cap is a standard hard gelatin or HPMC capsule with an embedded ingestible wireless sensor – the ID-Tag™. Each
time an ID-Cap is swallowed, the ID-Tag uses etectRx’s proprietary communications technology to transmit a very low power
digital message from within the patient’s stomach. (Image courtesy of eTectRx)
By Rachel Becker, THE VERGE
The pills are equipped with sensors pow-
ered by stomach acid
before their pills ran out, according to the study
published in the journal Anesthesia and Analge-
sia.
The latest weapon in the fight against opioid ad-
diction may be sensors in prescription opioids
that alert physicians whenever their patients pop
a pill.
These digital pills aren’t on the market yet, but a
small test run shows that they can help doctors
monitor how patients use prescription painkillers
at home.
SENSORS ALERT PHYSICIANS WHEN-
EVER THEIR PATIENTS POP A PILL
By prescribing opioids equipped with radio trans-
mitters to patients treated for broken bones, re-
searchers tracked patients’ pill use in real time.
The research team, led by Peter Chai at Harvard
Medical School’s Brigham and Women’s Hospi-
tal, found that most of the patients started spac-
ing out their doses after a few days, and stopped
Image courtesy of eTectRx
(The participants turned their remaining pills in to
their docs).
Prescribing too many pills might lead patients to
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