Patients swallow tiny device which is powered by acid found in the stomach and sends information about temperature and heart rate to your mobile phone

A SENSOR the size of a pill that collects health data from inside your body could revolutionise medicine.

The silver bullet sees patients swallow the small sensor before it starts sending information such as temperature and heart rate to the persons mobile phone.

Diemut Strebe

The tiny piece of technology is powered by acid found inside the stomach and the monitoring of these vital signs could significantly improve medical care.

The sensor was unveiled at the worlds biggest science fair in Boston, USA, where Dr Phillip Nadeau, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said: The self-powered pill would monitor your vital signs from inside for weeks.

It sits there making measurements and transmitting them to your phone. The information could be used to help doctors decide what medicine and treatment is best to give their patients.

MIT

The innovation was inspired by a lemon battery which uses citric acid from the fruit to charge up with energy.

MIT, who have been working with the Brigham and Womens Hospital on the project, said the pill can generate enough energy to power a thermometer that sends data wirelessly to a receiver two metres away.

A version of the pill, that powers up when a zinc electrode interacts with stomach acid, was tested on pigs.

The 30mm-long device took six days to travel through the animals digestive system with scientists now aiming to create a smaller version of it for human use.

The star-shaped arms on the pill are designed to help it stay in the stomach but without blocking food that is being digested.

They also hope the device can be used to release medicine by having the arms gradually dissolve = before the device passes out of the body.

Giovanni Traverso, from Brigham and Womens Hospital, said: Taking a capsule once a month could change how we think about delivering medication.

We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at tips@the-sun.co.uk or call 0207 782 4368.

Original post:

Pill-sized device could revolutionise medicine by sending health ... - The Sun