We’ve come a long way in the technological fields just in my lifetime.

I wanted to focus on one particular tech field this week because it is a subject that could have possibly diagnosed my wife’s pancreatic cancer before it was too late

While I’m interested in all things techno, ingestible biomedical sensor technology (IBST) is already being used to do amazing things and, hopefully, in the future will do even more.

IBST is basically a small pill-sized sensor you swallow much like any oral medication. The difference is the digital medicine is made up of sensors. This “sensor-enabled tablet” called Helius comes with an ingestible event marker. It can be administered with pills or incorporated into medicines by the manufacturers. Once swallowed, the sensor is activated by stomach acid. Then, it transmits a signal through the body to the skin patch attached to the skin of a patient, indicating that the patient has ingested medication.

The sensor is designed to measure vital signs for the patient. When ingested by the patient, the stomach acid helps to activate this sensor chip. Information relayed wirelessly back to a smartphone includes the patient’s adherence to the medical regimen and biostatistics including the patient’s heart rate.

The digital signal can only be detected using the adhesive patch attached to the skin like a bandage. It monitors several factors like body posture, temperature, respiration, sleeping patterns and heart rate.
Currently, the ingestible biomedical sensors are currently being used for treating the following therapeutic areas: Hypertension; diabetes; heart failure; mental health and tuberculosis.

Research is under way for a sensor to screen for blood in the lower colon a sign of possible bowel cancer and hopefully the ability of these devices to make comprehensive screens for all types of cancer will be developed.

Instead of waiting until the patient displays symptoms of a condition that commonly is called a silent killer, these high-tech gadgets would be on the lookout for early warning signs that could possibly catch the disease in the early stages where successful curative treatment can be administered.

Another use for the sensor is to monitor medications. With our country in the midst of an opioid epidemic, having a sensor that detects this medication and how much a patient has taken could save lives and get people treated before they became addicted to pain medication.

As opposed to a chip implanted in your hand that makes it easy to log into your computer or buy a soda, these technological ingestible have a shelf life. They do their job and pass through the body. They can only be used with the portal patch so those worried about privacy can rest assured.

My watch has sensors on it now, albeit limited in the amount of information it exchanges to my smart phone to steps taken in a day, heart rate and sleep time/quality.

Regarding privacy concerns, there’s already a web of cameras everywhere catching our every movements, at least this technology might catch our illness.

Contact Steve Warner at news@smithvillereview.com