NHS to launch 'intelligent' pill with edible microchip...

NHS to launch 'intelligent' pill with edible microchip...

www.dailymail.co.uk

Heart patients are to test the ultimate 'smart' pill - an edible microchip that delivers information about their body direct to a mobile phone.

Around 40 people are being recruited by NHS doctors to take standard versions of their heart pills fitted with a microchip.

The chips in the pills send signals to a patch attached to the patient's shoulder, which relays a text message to a mobile or hand-held device if they have forgotten to take their medication.

(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 13/8/2010 by PuterMan]

Quite apart from the fact that there is absolutely NO way I would have anything to do with this I have to question the veracity of their pilot test.

They are saying that the uptake of pills went from 30% to 80% !!



Are they really saying that so few took their heart medication? Frankly I don't believe it.

The other suggestions in the article raise a spectre of RFID chip control that I will have nothing to do with.


www.dailymail.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 13/8/2010 by PuterMan]

Originally posted by PuterMan
Are they really saying that so few took their heart medication? Frankly I don't believe it.

It's hard to know without a link to the US study, which the Daily Mail didn't give, but I would think it would depend on how they define "compliance".

In other words, non-compliance could be something as simple as not taking the pills according to schedule, something I know that I have enormous trouble doing reliably without some sort of reminder. If the efficacy of the medication requires it to be taken at a precise time of day (or precise intervals), I can easily see 80% of people being "non-compliant" on that level. It's not that they never took their heart medication, it's that they skipped doses or took them later than recommended, would be my guess.