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deca
12-04-2009, 05:00 AM
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1169305/Microchip-tells-GP-8217-ve-taken-pills.html

Microchip that tells the GP if you’ve taken your pills

By Jo Macfarlane
Last updated at 2:35 AM on 12th April 2009

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New technology: Doctors could soon monitor whether a patient has taken their medication by microchips in their pills

New technology: Doctors could soon monitor whether a patient has taken medication by microchips in pills

Microchips in pills could soon allow doctors to find out whether a patient has taken their medication.

The digestible sensors, just 1mm wide, would mean GPs and surgeons could monitor patients outside the hospital or surgery.

Developers say the technology could be particularly useful for psychiatric or elderly patients who rely on a complicated regime of drugs – and are at risk if they miss a dose or take it at the wrong time.

It could also be used for the chronically ill, such as people with heart disease, to establish whether costly drugs are working or whether they are causing potentially dangerous side effects.

The sensors could even remind women to take the Pill if they forget.

The ‘intelligent’ medicine works by activating a harmless electric charge when drugs are digested by the stomach.

This charge is picked up by a sensing patch on the patients’ stomach or back, which records the time and date that the pill is digested. It also measures heart rate, motion and breathing patterns.

The information is transmitted to a patient’s mobile phone and then to the internet using wireless technology, to give a complete picture of their health and the impact of their drugs.

Doctors and carers can view this information on secure web pages or have the information sent to their mobile phones.

The silicon microchips are invisible to patients and can be added to any standard drug during the manufacturing process.

Two major drugs companies are investigating the technology, developed by US-based Proteus Biomedical. Trials are to begin in the UK within 12 months.

Professor Nick Peters, a cardiologist at Imperial College London, who is co-ordinating
trials, said the technology was ‘transformative’.

‘This is all about empowering patients and their families because it measures wellness, and people can actually be tracked getting better,’ he said.

‘Psychologically speaking, that’s hugely helpful for patients and enormously reassuring for carers.

‘Normally patients would have to be in hospital to get this level of feedback, so the hope is that it frees up beds and saves the NHS money.’

oh we can see this one building....mental ill 4 people are dying.....oh shock....what can we do......stick a chip in them!!!!!!

14april2000
12-04-2009, 04:25 PM
I have read about this many years ago.

hoffy
15-04-2009, 07:01 PM
Well it's about bloody time. Although I'd prefer a chip just shot straight into my brain, so they can tell if I leave work ten minutes early as well. Where do I get one of those?

delamo1999
15-04-2009, 08:24 PM
This to me is an invasion of privacy. I don't want some allopathic practitioner pushing pills on me that I don't want to take and then get on me for not taking them. And if I choose to take herbal remedies, I don't need these people barking on me about them as well.

If people are too sick to take meds that they agree to take, then they should be in a hospice care. I don't see a woman who is taking birth control pills as being too sick (unless she is very hungover) to remember to take them.

:mad:

terryemm
15-04-2009, 11:49 PM
Wouldn't be hard to add them to paracetemol tablets for the unsuspecting hangover induced world. Paranoia! Paranoia!

bob_jones
16-04-2009, 09:26 PM
This to me is an invasion of privacy. I don't want some allopathic practitioner pushing pills on me that I don't want to take and then get on me for not taking them. And if I choose to take herbal remedies, I don't need these people barking on me about them as well.

If people are too sick to take meds that they agree to take, then they should be in a hospice care. I don't see a woman who is taking birth control pills as being too sick (unless she is very hungover) to remember to take them.

:mad:


Why should you be told you have no choise just because you are in hospice care?

delamo1999
16-04-2009, 09:36 PM
Why should you be told you have no choise just because you are in hospice care?


Hi Bob:

I know my post seemed a bit harsh but I this stuff is upsetting. To me it forcing good people to give up their power (or at least convincing them to do so). My point was that most people in days age are conhearant and don't need a third party to monitor any meds that they choose to take. A person who is really sick (ei undergoing harsh treatments of chemo), may need some help from someone else. But even for these people they need to have the choice to allow the practitioners to give them the meds.

bob_jones
16-04-2009, 11:28 PM
Hi Bob:

I know my post seemed a bit harsh but I this stuff is upsetting. To me it forcing good people to give up their power (or at least convincing them to do so). My point was that most people in days age are conhearant and don't need a third party to monitor any meds that they choose to take. A person who is really sick (ei undergoing harsh treatments of chemo), may need some help from someone else. But even for these people they need to have the choice to allow the practitioners to give them the meds.



Well in the case of psychiatric drugs you would lose your liberty by not taking them.
As a non-compliant the authorties would hunt you down.