You’ve heard of iTunes, iPods and iPhones, and now there’s the iPill. “I” is short for intelligent. This smart pill, made by Dutch hospital equipment company Philips, contains a microprocessor, a battery, a wireless radio, a pump and a tiny little drug reservoir that releases medication into specific parts of the body.
The pill is designed for disorders of digestion, such as Crohn’s disease, colitis and colon cancer. Using a sensor, it measures acidity in the gut and then releases medication exactly where it is needed. One of the objectives of the pill is to cut down on the side effects often encountered when drugs are delivered to the entire body.
