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American scientists have just developed a vibrating pill intended to analyze transit-related problems and help patients more effectively.
Robotics is a field that can help medicine. For example, researchers have just developed a mini vibrating robot in the shape of a pill, which would make it possible to precisely identify the location of an intestinal problem, such as a slowing down of transit.
This pill is 20 millimeters long and 8 in diameter. It is connected to a coil which remains outside the body. This coil emits an electromagnetic field, which will be picked up by the pill, once swallowed. This electromagnetic value, unique according to its distance, is then transmitted to a computer or a telephone via Bluetooth. This is what makes it possible to precisely determine the location of the pill in the body. After ingestion, the pill can therefore be located effectively, with an accuracy of 5 to 10 millimeters, throughout its journey.
What are the indications for this pill?
According to the researchers, this device could make it possible to identify which part of the digestive tract is causing a slowing of intestinal transit, without the patient having to go to the hospital for an X-ray or a colonoscopy.
According to Saransh Sharma, a researcher at the California Institute of Technology and co-author of the study, “if you can examine the intestinal health using this type of small robot (…), it will be a great help for gastroenterologists, who have to do many invasive tests“and that would allow them”to obtain a lot of essential information for their diagnosis and their treatment proposal”.
Clinical trials on humans “in a few years”
In addition to the indication of constipation, the authors believe that their pill can help people suffering from incontinence. They could swallow it with their meal and know when to go to the toilet, depending on the progress of the device in the intestine. This study, published in the journal Nature Electronics, indicates that the pill was tested on pigs. The researchers hope to be able to test their device in humans in “a few years“.