Doctors turn to electronic 'pill' for look at GI tract

08.09.2006
By the end of the year, patients suffering from a painful gastrointestinal (GI) problem will be able to swallow a vitamin-sized electronic "pill" that can collect data from their bodies and wirelessly send it to a nearby device.

The SmartPill GI Monitoring System, approved for use in July by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), is being readied for distribution by Buffalo, N.Y.-based SmartPill Corp. The company hopes to revolutionize the treatment of GI problems among thousands of patients.

Previously, doctors treated patients with or gastroparesis -- gastric emptying symptoms -- by sending them to a radiologist for tests that lasted four to eight hours and required the use of radioactive isotopes to track a patient's GI functions, according to Leslie Hornung, a SmartPill spokeswoman. Slow gastric emptying symptoms affect some 50 percent of diabetics, she said, causing sufferers to feel bloated after eating a small amount of food as well as nausea or vomiting.

The SmartPill capsule includes miniaturized sensors, a printed circuit board and tiny batteries that work to collect medical data as it makes its way through a person's GI tract and transmit it to an external receiver. Once swallowed, the device collects information on pressure, pH and temperature, Hornung said, storing data and transmitting it wirelessly to a PDA-sized receiver that the patient keeps close by during the testing.

After the capsule passes through the patient's GI tract, it is discarded and a phyician collects the data from the receiver and processes it using a special laptop and proprietary software from SmartPill Corp.

"It changes the entire dynamics of patient management," said David Barthel, the CEO and president of SmartPill. "People often suffer for years without accurate diagnoses."