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posted by martyb on Wednesday November 15 2017, @05:45PM   Printer-friendly
from the How-did-I-miss-the-:Analogue"-Pill? dept.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a "digital pill" that contains a sensor intended to track whether a patient has taken their medicine:

For the first time, the Food and Drug Administration has approved a digital pill — a medication embedded with a sensor that can tell doctors whether, and when, patients take their medicine. The approval, announced late on Monday, marks a significant advance in the growing field of digital devices designed to monitor medicine-taking and to address the expensive, longstanding problem that millions of patients do not take drugs as prescribed.

Experts estimate that so-called non-adherence or noncompliance to medication costs about $100 billion a year, much of it because patients get sicker and need additional treatment or hospitalization. "When patients don't adhere to lifestyle or medications that are prescribed for them, there are really substantive consequences that are bad for the patient and very costly," said Dr. William Shrank, chief medical officer of the health plan division at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

Ameet Sarpatwari, an instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School, said the digital pill "has the potential to improve public health," especially for patients who want to take their medication but forget. But, he added, "if used improperly, it could foster more mistrust instead of trust."

FDA news release.


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  • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday November 15 2017, @07:20PM

    by bob_super (1357) on Wednesday November 15 2017, @07:20PM (#597415)

    Step 1, Monday morning: tell your employees that, per secret agreement to escape prison, drug dealers in the area have been putting those chips in their products for a little while.
    Step 2: pull out some gizmo with wires, and announce that you will now conduct a drug test.
    Step 3: watch some of the employees' reactions. Remember the ones who anxiously ask whether the chip works if crushed or boiled. Plan to drug test any of those that you want to get rid of.
    Step 4: Tell them that it was a joke to remind them that the drug-free policy isn't a joke.
    Step 5: Watch how many people quit.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2