World's first electronic 'smart pill' approved

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a historic move to use the first digital pill. The pill was designed to track whether patients took their medication. With the help of the pill, the volunteers' information gathered by the sensor is delivered to their doctors, designated family members or caregivers.

Abilify MyCite is located in the Abilify tablet, a drug used to treat mental illnesses such as pills, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder. A sensor as small as a grain of sandstone made of silicon, copper, and magnesium is among the equipment of the pill. In the treatment of depression, the drug used in conjunction with anti-depressants is triggered by contact with the stomach acid and is monitored by external equipment placed in the patient's left chest.

The system reads the information collected by the sensor and transmits all data to the smartphone application via Bluetooth. The sensor collects dosing and activity levels, sleep patterns, and heart rate when the pill is taken.

As expected with such an interventional development, experts are very worried about what this pill can mean for privacy. The potential to be used as a tool for the abuse of such technologies or for the criminal intervention of a patient who does not take their medication properly is very high.