These little sensors know when they've been swallowed.
Not everyone likes taking their medicine. Between just plain forgetfulness and a dislike for taste or side effects, many long term prescription users routinely miss taking their meds. That avoidance leads to $290 billion in medical costs in the US alone according to the New England Healthcare Institute. Between one third and one half of all Americans have missed taking their pills, but that could all change with Proteus Biomedical. As we described last year, and again recently, Proteus attaches an ingestible computer chip on pills so that an implanted or mobile device can track to see if you are actually swallowing them. Part of the Raisin™ system which is currently in clinical trials, tattle-tale pills may be a great way to keep you medicated.
Proteus’ system seems like such a revolutionary and worthwhile idea that Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis (NYSE: NVS) has partnered with Proteus for the clinical trials and beyond. According to the Financial Times, 20 patients have been studied as they use Novartis’ blood pressure medication Diovan with the Raisin system. Compliance has been boosted from 30% to 80% after six months. This high tech solution to combat pill avoidance is light years ahead of Pfizer’s solution: calling patients to remind them.
Here’s a piece of genuine elderly-friendly technology. It’s simple enough that Grandma can use it, but the whole thing rings to the tune of Body 2.0. The MEDSignals device is a convenient and handy pillbox that makes sure our overmedicated population don’t miss a beat. Alongside its ability to task master and make sure pills are administered periodically, the MEDSignals box also lets patients, doctors, family know (via the web) that the pills are being taken regularly. Although it is quite large (a welcome change from the usual nano-sized gadgets that the older generation generally does not care to learn how to use), the MEDSignals really does its job well.
What will it be, Neo? The red pill or the blue pill?
Now, thorough isn’t an adjective used when describing many things made or designed in this great country. Our cars have worse build quality than the Italians (and when have you seen a Lamborghini that is not on fire?), we don’t read our laws before we pass them, and we were just so certain that there were WMDs in Iraq. But MEDSignals: boy are they thorough. There is an LED next to each of the four pill bins that can hold up to a month’s supply of pills. The bins are numbered, color-coded and have Braille identifiers just to cover all the bases. When it is time to take a pill, a pre-recorded voice tells the user that it is time, specifies the bin as well as the number of pills to take and also says any other instructions that have been programmed into the system.
If that isn’t enough, then worry not: the pill taking process is far from completed. Coinciding with the voice, the LED beside the pill compartment flashes according to the number of pills to take while the same information is displayed on the screen. But what if it’s a late dinner and the pills need to be washed down with some food? Well, there is a snooze button that allows the alarm to be pushed back by convenient 30-minute intervals. And at a cost of nearly $400 with additional monthly fees for data upload access, this thing better be thorough!
Everyone knows that building the perfect body takes years of hard work and an iron will. Everyone except Tim Ferriss. The bestselling author just announced that his next book will focus on his study of the human body using the craziest subject he could find: himself. Tim promises to show readers how to increase muscle strength by 30% in three days or less, drop 50-100 pounds of fat, or change lean muscle mass weight by 20 lbs in just 3-4 weeks. In short, Tim Ferriss has found the short cut to getting cut, and he’s about to share it with the world.
The bestselling author's next book will focus on superhuman workout regimens. (Photo from Tim Ferriss' Blog: http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/)
I have no idea if Tim Ferriss is the real deal, but he’s certainly made himself into a big deal. His 2007 bestselling book,The 4 Hour Work Week, promised to show you how to exit the rat race, make tons of money, and pursue your life’s goals without working yourself to death. He appeared at MIT, Harvard, Princeton, the CIA, Google, Live with Regis and Kelly…the list really never ends. He’s been on a constant lecture circuit while still achieving some ridiculous titles. He holds a Guinness World Record for Tango spins, he’s a champion kickboxer in China, and even had a TV show: Trial by Fire on Discovery Channel. Check out the promo after the break.
It’s time to let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. For anyone who has visited the hospital recently, medical sensors should be familiar to you. Little sticky pads for ECG and EEG, thermometers, biochemical monitors…there a thousand things doctors can stick on or in you. Up to now, the data from each sensor was collected separately, transmitted separately, and often analyzed separately. The correlation between activities in your heart, head, and hands was largely absent. Until now.
Toumaz's Sensium is a new way to collect, analyze, and transmit data from body sensors.
Britain’s Toumaz Technology has developed Sensium, a device that allows data collected from various sensors on your body to be collected, processed, and transmitted via wireless signals in a single network. They don’t make the sensors, but they allow you to synchronize the signal from each one. That’s a key ingredient in getting better care. It also has huge applications in sports and fitness. A small Belgian company working with an Italian football club (read here: soccer) has been using earlier generation bulky devices to record the timing of their players movement, stress levels, and other factors. With their own algorithms they are able to predict the mental state of their players. They are now looking to use Sensium to bring a non-intrusive, real-time element to this technique. Knowing the precise time and way to field players could be a winning edge.
Singularity Hub was impressed with Toumaz Technology before, so much so that we hunted down its CEO, Keith Errey, for an exclusive phone interview. From that conversation we were able to get some great insights into how the company will change the way that we monitor our health. Hear about the exciting new information after the break.
“There is a whole new set of things that are gonna be understood and [help us] learn about how we actually are and operate and respond as physical beings.” — Keith Errey June 30, 2009
The eScale will send your weight via cell phone signal to the Internet. Better start working out!
If Reality TV has taught us anything about weight loss it’s that the more people who are watching you, the quicker you’ll drop the pounds. Social pressure is a key ingredient in the eScale from Body Trace. This bathroom scale comes equipped with a modified cell phone module allowing it to broadcast your weight to a Body Trace “motivational webpage.” There you, or your avatar, can display the fluctuations in your weight with all the pride or shame that you want. Along with a calorie calculator, BMI graph, and health tips, the Body Trace motivational page allows you to connect with friends and strangers to share in your experience. It’s social networking meets weight loss obsession.
This isn’t the first web-based weight loss device Singularity Hub has seen. There are smart toilets that will analyze your weight as you pee, as well as analyze it for your doctor. There are big differences with Body Trace, however. First, the eScale has a GSM network module, so it connects directly to the Body Trace server straight out of the box. No WiFi or other setup necessary. You just pop in the batteries (six D-cells included) and step on the eScale. It’s that simple. Second, Body Trace is really pushing the networking aspects of their motivational page. Looking at the screen shot, I am reminded of Facebook’s wall interface. It’s a nice concept, and I have no doubt that being able to share the weight loss struggle will really help some people achieve their goals.
Yet another sci-fi milestone is upon us: microchips implanted under your skin and used to identify you.
The VeriChip implant. Photo: Business Week
The VeriChip is the first radio-frequency identification (RFID) microchip that’s been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use in humans. The chip is the size of a long grain of rice, and can be implanted pretty much anywhere in the body (most commonly along the tricep). Depending on how it’s used, the chip could do anything from telling doctors your medical background to buying you a round at the club.
Outside of human bodies, RFID is already used for a wide range of purposes. If you pay highway tolls electronically, that little box in your car has an RFID tag in it. Lots of folks implant their pets with RFID chips in case they get lost, as animal shelters increasingly scan pets for them. Wal-Mart tracks their shipments with RFID, which has apparently revolutionized supply chain management. Hell, there’s even one in your passport.
But why put one inside your body? As interesting as it might be to have your ID show up on an x-ray, most people would rather suffer a line at the DMV than a rice-injection. Sure, it might make for good conversation at a party. But is that worth the needle? What would it take to get one under your skin?
About a year ago, we brought to light a brilliant company that could be described as a predecessor to body 2.0. Proteus Biomedical specializes in creating a digestible, ingestible microchip called the Raisin that can be put into medicines. The chip is activated by stomach acids and can transmit to an external receiver from within the body. Now, the Proteus system is about to be tested in two clinical trials in the UK, a big leap that, if successful, could bring this technology to consumers in a mere matter of years. Edible underwear, yes, but edible microchips? Now that is cool.
Proteus Ingestible Sensors
In the ongoing onslaught of body 2.0 (the constant monitoring of the body to ensure that health problems are caught and treated early) here at Singularity Hub, we have brought you the SmartPill, a digestive system tracker that has many similarities with the Raisin chip. Although both are meant to be eaten and both can transmit information back out to a portable data receiver, the Proteus system is designed to be packaged along with another medication inside of a pill, giving doctors a different dataset than the SmartPill.
Raisin can be a great help to doctors who are trying to closely monitor their patients. Firstly, it can tell the doctor which medication was taken and if the medication was taken at all. This could prove quite useful for patients who would resist taking the medication or those patients that do not take dosages in the correct amount or at the right time. The benefits do not stop after the medication is in the body, as the microchip is able to transmit the patient’s vital signs (heart rate and such) in real-time. Doctors will then be able to tell exactly what physiological changes occurred with medication and change dosages as needed for an optimal patient response.
Technology is advancing at a rapid pace in all studies of medicine and, luckily for all, those with gastrointestinal problems (most specifically that flatulent guy who always winds up sitting next to you at the movies) have not been forgotten. Yes, the scientists at SmartPill have created, you guessed it, the Smart Pill. The pill is designed to transmit data from within the GI tract back to a receiving station, giving doctors a real-time and non-invasive way of measuring health. Well, at least the pill goes with the flow of traffic, not against it.
Good news, it's not a suppository
The one-time use Smart Pill is ingested by the patient in a doctor’s office. A data receiver is worn by the patient, or kept within at least five feet, while the pill naturally passes through the body. The pill is capable of transmitting data continuously for up to 72 hours, including pressure, pH and temperature. Connecting the data recorder to a PC will allow doctors to figure out residence times in each area of the GI tract as well as pressure contraction patterns, which may indicate signs of GI issues.
This valuable tool is part of the beginning of the body 2.0 revolution, a continuous monitoring of all systems within the body that will alert the patient at the first signs of malady. On top of that, the data collected from millions of users would be put in a database for all others to see, creating a free, open source information system similar to the Personal Genome Project. The true body 2.0 may be a ways off in the future, but the Smart Pill is available now and may already be in the local GI specialist’s collection already. Such a simple and painless way of monitoring the body for wellness will make it the process much easier for both doctors and patients.
It is a horrifying concept: being buried alive. Even more terrible is the prospect of living trapped in our own bodies, unable to move or communicate. It’s called locked-in syndrome. Characters like Captain Pike and Jean-Dominique Bauby, (one fictional, the other not) describe the fear and frustration of living with a healthy mind in a broken body. But there is a real-life hope. As its name suggests, Cyberkinetics’ Braingate Neural Interface device allows patients to open the door between their mind and the outside world. Utilizing years of research studying brain signals, Braingate can read impulses in the brain using tiny implanted wires and translate those impulses into commands for computer cursors, wheelchairs, and perhaps even robotic limbs.
Braingate reads signals in the motor cortex and translates those signals into movements of a cursor on a screen.
The procedure for implanting Braingate may seem pure science fiction, but it works. Hair-thin gold wires are connected to individual neurons in the brain’s motor cortex. These wires are gathered at a small silicon array and connected to a “pedestal” embedded in the skull. This metallic interface is easy to spot (it’s a big metal nub on the top of the head). From the pedestal, signals can be sent to a computer for translation. By interpreting the motor cortex signals, scientists can determine what your brain would be trying to move (arm, hand, finger, etc) if you weren’t paralyzed.
So you have a metal nub in your head, and some wires poking into your brain, what’s the pay off? How about the most intuitive mouse ever: by thinking about raising or lowering their hands, patients can move a cursor on the screen of a PC. Squeeze their imaginary hand, and the cursor clicks. The brain signals aren’t completely mapped out yet, and keeping track of one’s thoughts isn’t an easy task, so the cursor tends to jiggle a little and can be hard to move quickly. That being said, it allows individuals who have a hard time even blinking to be able to communicate with others and manipulate devices from their computer. Check out Kathy Hutchinson, one of the first patients, in this story from 60 minutes, the cable connected to her skull seems to be straight out of the Matrix:
Modern medicine may not have reached the level of the Bionic Woman, but intestinal implants are turning more and more diabetics into low-grade cyborgs. The device in question is Enterra ®, a neurostimulator from Medtronic, that treats gastroparesis. This stomach disorder effects up to 1 in 5 diabetics and basically prevents food from progressing through the GI tract. Non-diabetics can develop the disorder from surgery, medicine reactions, or auto-immune diseases. With the implant, however, most patients can hope to reduce many of gastroparesis’ nastier symptoms like bloating, nausea, and vomiting.
The Enterra neurostimulator implant as seen after installation. Photo from botjunkie.com
It takes general anesthesia and surgery to place the Enterra ® device, but afterwards doctors can adjust it externally, using a remote apparatus. Not a bad trick, and one that allows patients to avoid further invasive procedures. While it may take a little more work to install than other implants (did you know that a pacemaker only requires local anesthesia nowadays?) it has benefited from their popularity. Medtronic received special humanitarian device exemption (HDE) from the US FDA for Enterra ®. This means that while the device’s benefits haven’t been proven rigorously, the FDA is willing to let it be placed in patients. All it takes is a facility’s institutional review board to approve the device, and many have already done so.
To those unfamiliar with Japanese culture, certain trends may seem unusual: manga and anime, the love affair with robotics, tea ceremonies…computerized talking toilets. Yeah, Americans don’t often run into those. So get the jokes out of the way (we all get one, just one), shrug off the discomfort, and let’s sit down and talk toilet.
Toto's new Intelligence Toilet II monitors weight, blood sugar levels, and other vital signs, transferring data to your computer for analysis via WiFi.
Toto’s newest smart john, the Intelligence Toilet II, is proving that it is more than an ordinary porcelain throne by recording and analyzing important data like weight, BMI, blood pressure, and blood sugar levels.
There’s a “sample catcher” in the bowl that can obtain urine samples. Even by Japanese standards that’s impressive. Yes it has the bidet, the air dryer, and heated seat, but it’s also recording pertinent information. This information is beamed to your computer via WiFi and can help you, with the guidance of a trained physician, monitor health and provide early detection for some medical conditions. Graphs on your desktop PC will show how your glucose levels have been fluctuating, along with urine temperatures. These trends can help diabetics time insulin shots as well as give insight into hormone levels for women concerned with their menstrual cycles. Trying to have a baby? Not sure when your most likely to conceive? Ask your toilet for help.
Did you ever stop to think how silly and also how dangerous it is to live our lives with absolutely no monitoring of our body’s medical status? Years from now people will look back and find it unbelievable that heart attacks, strokes, hormone imbalances, sugar levels, and hundreds of other bodily vital signs and malfunctions were not being continuously anticipated and monitored by medical implants. We can call this concept body 2.0, or the networked body, and we need it now!
The trio of biomedicine, technology, and wireless communication are in the midst of a merger that will easily bring continuous, 24×7 monitoring of several crucial bodily functions in the years ahead. Unfortunately, as is often the case with medical products, the needed innovations are either already developed or will be soon, but some of the best commercial products won’t make it to the market until years of testing have proven their safety.
In the future your doctor might call you before you have a heart attack, responding to an alarm sent out by monitoring systems in your body that have detected the precursors to a heart attack hours or days ahead of time. With body 2.0, medicine dosages could be tailored precisely to your body chemistry and metabolism. Real-time monitoring of chemical concentrations in your blood could allow for increasing or decreasing dosages accordingly.
The huge amounts of data that would be accumulated from hundreds of thousands of continuously monitored people would be nothing short of a revolution for medical research and analysis. This data could be harvested to understand the minute by minute changes in body chemistry that occur in response to medication, stress, infection, and so on. As an example, the daily fluctuations in hormone levels of hundreds of thousands of individuals could be tracked and charted 24/7 to determine a baseline from which abnormalities and patterns could be extracted. The possibilities are enormous.
Given the advantages, we must wonder why body monitoring is not already more successful and widespread. The answer is that most of the interesting body monitoring we desire requires direct access to the blood stream and other bodily fluids, and this is not an easy problem to overcome.
A straightforward technique is to prick the skin periodically to extract and analyze blood, yet this only works for periodic monitoring. It does not provide continuous access to bodily fluids. Sensors implanted permanently into the blood stream are what is needed, but the difficulty is that moisture, enzymes, and the immune system quickly wreak havoc on mechanical devices and destroy them. Implants also pose several opportunities for life threatening infection to take hold, and this must be addressed.
The video below opens our eyes to the possibilities:
Although the road to continuous body monitoring poses challenges, these challenges are certainly within our means to overcome, and exciting progress is being made all over the world. The medical monitoring, device, and implant space is absolutely enormous, so there is no way we can do justice to the myriad of companies and research projects that are out there. Nevertheless, here are a few of the companies and products that we are aware of:
Proteus Biomedical:
One of the biggest names in the industry is a company we have reported on before, Proteus Biomedical…
View Comments