A raisin that can save your life
Image by Proteus Biomedical
When it comes to reporting our personal health, we’re not the most reliable source. We forget, we rationalize, we fudge the facts. But mobile technology is making medical reports more accurate. The FDA recently approved the marketing of a new medical device worn like a bandaid that receives data from a sensor you swallow in a pill and then sends out a wireless health report.
Called the Raisin Personal Monitor, this little wonder can record heart rate, respiration rate, physical activity and body position. It then transmits the data via Bluetooth technology to a mobile phone or other device to help health care providers monitor patient compliance or reactions to a drug therapy. It was designed primarily for heart failure patients, but the applications may extend to other conditions.
The device manufacturer, Proteus Biomedical, developed ingestible sensors made out of food products that serve as markers in the body. If I understand this correctly, you swallow the sensor in pill form and it activates when it hits your stomach. Then it transmits an ultra-low-power signal to the Raisin, recording everything from date/time, type of drug, dose, place of manufacture and physical reactions. How does it know where the drug was manufactured? That’s crazy.
Personally, I’d be a little nervous swallowing a tracking device. I probably won't be first in line to try it. What will the long-term side effects be? Will I own my own health data? And to take a more sinister turn, what if the powers that be require us to wear the Raisin or take the sensor pill to get our prescription expenses reimbursed? Along with progress comes a little paranoia.
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