I recently gave a presentation at a Virginia Pharmacy Association conference on "Technology in Senior Care". Part of my presentation was related to the role pharmacists may have in patient care using sensor technology and biometrics. Therefore, as noted in the content below, I was pleased to see one of my students pose a similar question in an assignment for my
PHAR 640 Leadership By Design course.
The following content was written and approved for posting by Aquisi Harris, PharmD Candidate.
As a future pharmacist, I often think about where healthcare is going and how patient care can continuously be improved. My recent ponderings on this topic lead me to search new and emerging technologies in healthcare. Among Google Glass, 3D biological printers and the artificial pancreas, I also came across ingestible sensors. Since these sensors would be swallowed just like the medications that are a large part of a pharmacist’s job, I could not help but think about how pharmacists could be involved with this digital medicine technology.
Proteus® Digital Health company had their ingestible sensor technology approved by the FDA in July 2012. This technology is fascinating to me. A person swallows the sensor (along with their medications), which is made entirely of ingredients found in food. The sensor is then activated and powered by the body – no batteries needed. The sensor transmits information such as heart rate and activity to a disposable patch on the body, which then sends the data to a Bluetooth-enabled device. What takes this technology beyond fascinating is the potential impact that it can have on the changing world of healthcare.
The ingestible sensor can – forgive the cliché – kill two birds with one stone. With the growth of an aging population and the number of people insured after the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, experts are projecting a primary care provider shortage. This means less and less time for physicians to spend on individual patient care. Pharmacists are also currently pushing for provider status, which would allow for continued expansion of the pharmacist’s role in patient care. The data provided by the ingestible sensor could give pharmacists direct access to information about the patient’s medication adherence and response to therapy. Paired with provider status, this could allow pharmacist’s to have a larger role in healthcare and, at the same time, relieve much of the burden on physicians, thus helping to ease some of the problem with the primary care provider shortage.
Can the ingestible sensor technology be the answer to these current hot topics in healthcare? Will it lead to further improvements in patient care? Or is there the possibility that ingestible sensors will threaten healthcare delivery?
Thank you for your article, Aquisi. This is such a fascinating topic. It is incredible that technology is so advanced that sensors can be made from material found in our food. If this product is cost effective for patients, it could very well transform the way certain patients are treated. If we knew patients were compliant with their medicines as shown by the device, we could spend precious time talking to the patients about other aspects of healthcare. Or, on the flip side, if we saw a patient was not being as adherent we would know to spend a little more time stressing the importance. This device would really help providers know which areas needed focusing on. It is possible that this product will be limited by the costs though.
ReplyDeleteThe ingestible sensor demonstrates the limitless capacity of technology used to optimize health care. With the Introduction of the iwatch and Google glass patients will have the ability to monitor their physiologic levels on demand. A draw back with ingestible sensor is that it only lasts up to 24 hours, so it will need to be ingested daily. For patients that take medication daily this will not serve as an issue, but to a patient who doesn't require daily medication it may act as a barrier. I'm excited to see the evolution of the product and what steps are taken in order to appeal to a broader consumer/patient demographic.
ReplyDeleteWith the ever-changing use of technology, it only makes sense that monitoring patients will become more virtual and less subjective. In a supporting article of Proteus, they used patients who had schizophrenia and bipolar disorders. I can see a huge market for this monitoring system because of all the objective data it provides about the patient. It can give the patient a reminder if they miss their medication and can give an accurate sleep pattern history. This could be a huge resource for pharmacist to assess adherence and even potential side effects such as insomnia. There are many other disease states where adherence imperative such as tuberculosis and HIV.
ReplyDelete