Microchip Lets Doctor Know if You’ve Taken Your Pills

Courtesy of Tom Varco

Microchips inserted into pills could soon allow doctors to find out whether a patient has taken her medication or not. These digestible sensors, which are just 1 millimeter wide, could be particularly useful for psychiatric or elderly patients who rely on a complicated drug regimen. If taken in the wrong doses or at the wrong times, these drugs could potentially put their physical and mental health at risk. It could also be used for the chronically ill, such as people with heart disease, to establish whether costly drugs are working or whether they are causing potentially dangerous side effects. The sensors could even remind women to take their birth control pill if they forget. The