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Electronics in medications? Wait, WTF?
hans:
Tonight, I found this: https://www.abilifymycite.com/about
FYI: Abilify is an antipsychotic drug for people that need to silence the storm inside their head. The problem is that this storm can convince patients that they forget whether they've taken them, or don't need/want/require the drug anymore (because it makes them feel too great/bad). The bottom line is, therapy efficacy of such medication is defined by therapy compliance. And so they created a pill that tracks whenever it has been taken, so the doctor can see whether you are honest about actually taking them.
To be honest I'm not surprised this exists. I think Mythbusters way back in the day did a myth about a digestion passable body core thermometer. I think Mike from mikeselectricstuff also did a teardown of a similar camera unit. However those were both plastic capsules that were designed not to give off medication chemicals or dissolve in the digestive system. Meanwhile, these pills apparently do.
At first I thought that maybe they have some special pill dispenser or strip that tracks when the user takes one. But that would be easily faked, as you can just throw the medication away. They actually want to know if you have taken it. The brochure (half way down the page), says it tracks pill ingestions using a body patch. But then I read the descriptions (page 6):
--- Quote ---The nonmedicated MYCITE® Patch gets a signal from the smart pill after you swallow it. Like an activity tracker, the Bluetooth®* patch logs your daily rest and activity (steps), sending the information to an app on your smartphone. The patch can stay on even through water and sweat and does not need to be taken off in the shower or during exercise.
--- End quote ---
So the patch is probably some small sealed Bluetooth sensor that logs a few metrics.
--- Quote ---ABILIFY MYCITE® (aripiprazole tablets with sensor) is a smart pill that combines prescription medication with a tiny sensor the size of a grain of sand. The sensor is made entirely of natural ingredients found in most diets. It passes through your body naturally.
--- End quote ---
Wait, the sensor is made entirely of natural ingredients?! The last time I checked, people normally don't eat sand. So what would features or construction could they use from an 'organic' pill to do this kind of tracking? :-//
This withdrawn medical application, seems to suggest it does contain some kind of electronics: https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/medicines/human/withdrawn-applications/abilify-mycite
Disclaimer: I do not want to cross reference and certainly hope we don't diverge towards a 5G-chip vaccin discussion.
JohnnyMalaria:
Who said anything about it being made of sand?
Here's the patent: https://patents.google.com/patent/US20100185055A1/en
xrunner:
--- Quote from: JohnnyMalaria on April 14, 2021, 10:10:32 pm ---Who said anything about it being made of sand?
Here's the patent: https://patents.google.com/patent/US20100185055A1/en
--- End quote ---
From that link, interesting reading -
--- Quote ---The activation component is a component that activates the signal generation element of the identifier to provide a signal, e.g., by emission or upon interrogation, following contact of the composition with a target physiological site of interest, such as the stomach. As reviewed in co-pending PCT application serial no. PCT/US2006/016370, activation of the identifier may be achieved in a number of different ways, where such approaches include, but are not limited to: battery completion, battery connection, etc. The different activation approaches disclosed in this co-pending application may be readily adapted to provide activation, as described herein, and as such are herein incorporated by reference in their entirety.
--- End quote ---
DrG:
Sounds to me like it is basically, a small and simple transmitter. The "battery" becomes active for a short period of time by contact with gastric fluids. The chip communicates with a patch worn near you stomach. The patch has BLE which communicates with your smartphone.
Embedded in the pill is a sensor that consists of a silicon chip with the logic circuit, along with two pieces of metal: copper and magnesium, Savage told Live Science. When the sensor is dropped into a solution of water or any other liquid that has polar molecules (such as the hydrochloric acid in the stomach, which dissolves the pill, leaving the sensor behind), the device will generate a current. The current is very small, but it's enough to run the chip.
"Technically, it's a partial power source," Savage said. "The patient becomes the battery."
Once activated, the chip — only 1 millimeter on a side, and 0.3 mm thick — sends a very simple signal, one that encodes only a single number. That number identifies the pill and tells the wearable, adhesive sensor — basically an adhesive bandage, Savage said — that it has been ingested.
The pill's signal isn't a radio signal, though, Savage said. The chip's logic circuit makes a small modulated current — a graph of the current levels would look like a sine wave. Since the human body is conductive, the wearable sensor can pick up the changes. The modulated current can encode ones and zeroes, similar to an FM signal, Savage said.
"It works in a similar way as an EKG," or electrocardiogram, Savage said. These machines pick up on changes in electrical current in the body to monitor heartbeats. The wearable sensor does the same thing, though the current is smaller, he said.
from https://www.livescience.com/60963-how-does-digital-pill-work-abilify.html
No WTF here.
amyk:
I guess the WTF is "The sensor is made entirely of natural ingredients found in most diets."
Maybe if you count electrons, protons, and neutrons as "natural ingredients found in most diets"... which then begs the question, "most diets!?!?" :o
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