RFID, GPS Technology and Electronic Surveillance

Text Messages from a Microchip on Your Shoulder Remind You to Take Your Pills

Chip-on-a-shoulder sends nagging text messages to patients who fail to follow doctors' orders

September 23, 2009

Popular Science - A text-messaging microchip planted on the patient's body significantly boosts compliance with doctor's prescriptions, according to pharmaceutical giant Novartis. That's good news for patient health and reining in healthcare costs, but a potentially worrisome development for privacy advocates.

Patients taking a drug for lowering blood pressure also received two additional gifts: tiny microchips within each pill and a shoulder-attached sensor patch. Mobihealthnews explained how stomach acid surrounding the ingested pills generates an electric charge, and that signals the shoulder patch.

The patch dutifully records the time and date when a patient takes each pill, so that it can give its wearer a cell phone buzz when it's time to take the next pill. Other information, such as heart rate, activity and breathing patterns, are also transmitted to the cell phone and onto the Internet -- a form of extreme patient transparency for watchful caregivers.

The Financial Times reports that the 20 guinea pig patients improved their compliance from 30 percent to 80 percent after half a year. Novartis might expand its approach by striking an exclusive deal with chip supplier Proteus Biomedical.

Medical technology has long moved toward greater monitoring capabilities, whether patients are in an operating room or out jogging on the trail. Growing numbers of smart cell phones have also permitted doctors and patients alike to gauge personal health in unprecedented ways.

Still, future patients may find it somewhat unnerving to get nagging reminders from that chip on their shoulder -- especially when they know the guys in white coats aren't far behind.

New Cellphones Monitor Your Health and May Soon Deliver Medicine

September 21, 2009

Popular Science - The world is about to get four billion more nurses. With the help of add-on apps and gadgets, cellphones can become medical helpers that track and transmit your vitals to physicians. These mobile aides will help catch diseases early, save ER visits, and cut health-care costs. And as future implants let phones trigger drug release, your favorite gadget may even save your life.

Now: Track Your Own Health

Today’s medical cellphone apps focus on fitness, an area that doesn’t require FDA approval. Strap this heart monitor around your chest while you jog, and it beams info over Bluetooth to the Nokia N79 Active. Software on the phone records your heart rate, along with your route, altitude, speed and distance, as calculated by a GPS chip in the phone. Chart your progress, or compare it with your friends’, on Nokia’s Sports Tracker Web site.

Soon: Loop in Your Doctor

Next year you’ll see the first apps that link your phone to bona fide medical devices, such as blood-pressure cuffs and diabetics’ glucose meters, and send stats straight to a doctor for instant review. The Health on the Go program, now in tests on BlackBerry phones, captures blood pressure and oxygen and sugar levels when you connect instruments using Bluetooth. Alerts remind you to check your stats and what your target numbers are.

Later: Let the Doctor Take Over

The mobile devices of 2012 and beyond will check vitals automatically, so you don’t even have to stop texting. Researchers at the University of Texas are developing implantable sensors that use short-range radio chips to constantly beam vital signs to your phone. Your cell then relays info to your doctor, who can send back instructions for the implants. For instance, your phone could signal the sensor to take extra measurements or, eventually, to release built-in doses of insulin or painkiller.

University of Texas at Dallas Telemedicine http://www.eac.utdallas.edu/