Bluetooth ‘smart pill’ created to deliver drugs wirelessly via smartphone

3D-printing has seemed to made its way into the field of medical technology as a new 3D-printed digestible smart pill can now be used to deliver drugs wirelessly with the help of smartphones.

A team of researchers from MIT have developed a 3D-printed smart pill that is able to release medications in the stomach along with monitoring temperature for up to a month at a time. Also, it can detect infections or an allergic reaction, after which the pill would release the antibiotics.

As explained in the paper published in the journal Advanced Materials Technologies, researchers explained that as soon as the pill is swallowed, its outer capsule dissolves and reveals a tiny device that unfolds into a Y-like shape. The shape helps the device to lodge in the stomach, where it can remain up to 36 days before breaking apart and leaving the body via the digestive tract, wrote Telegraph.

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One arm of the Y features four tiny compartments able to hold drugs, the releasing of which can occur over several days. The pill contains a sensor that can monitor body temperature and relay the data via Bluetooth to a smartphone. There is also an added security feature in the pill and can only communicate with a device that’s within arm’s length, thus no worrying about interception of the data.

Eventually, the researchers hope that they will be able to design the device to release drugs via smartphone control. The smart pill, for now, is powered by a tiny silver oxide battery, but the team is further exploring other power sources, which includes using the user’s own stomach acid, as per Futurism.

For now the pill has only been tested on pigs, with human testing to start within two years. Researchers believe that such a wirelessly controlled smart pill can benefit people particularly at a high risk for infection or for people with diseases that require long-term medication such as chemotherapy.