In the article, Take
Your Medicine: This $1.5 Billion Health Startup’s Smart Pills Keep Patients
from Forgetting, Angel Au-Yeung from the Forbes Staff discusses the idea of
using technology to help people remember to take their medications. She
explains that “only 25% to 50% of patients worldwide take their medications
correctly, and in the U.S. roughly 125,000 people die annually from not
correctly taking their prescriptions.” These statistics were shocking because
when you think of the causes of death, carelessness with medication never comes
to mind. Au-Yeung also made a point that when people forget to take their
medications it increases costs to healthcare systems and the number of costs
increase when you take hospital costs into consideration. Au-Yeung uses an
upright example when she says if patients with high blood pressure improperly
take their medications it leads to a stroke, which entails a major hospital
visit with many costs.
Although the article explains these issues as a matter of
forgetfulness, using technology to minimize these statistics is a smart idea.
Au-Yeung introduces a technology health start-up called Proteus, that was
created to do exactly that. Andrew Thompson and Dr. George Savage created a
tiny sensor made of components seen in a person’s everyday diet. This sensor
lies in the patient’s stomach, by embedding it into medications that a patient
swallows. When the sensor hits the patients stomach acid, it turns on. It then
sends signals to a patch worn by the patients and the patch sends information
to an app on the patient’s phone and to a patient portal with the doctor.
This technology health start-up could be very useful to
many people and it could be the start to new ideas of using technology with
pharmaceuticals. As mentioned, in 2017 the FDA approved a drug using Proteus
technology. This technology now treats bipolar disorder, depression,
schizophrenia and Tourette syndrome. This is an amazing step because people
struggle with mental health every day. Au-Yeung also mentions in the article that
patients not taking their medications properly is only a matter of
forgetfulness. However, a majority of patients on medications are elderly and
they are often not in the best cognitive state to be responsible for their own
health. Therefore, using this technology could be extremely helpful by
reminding them when to take their medications, keeping them up to date on their
health and by allowing the doctor to have updates on the patient’s status.
The downside mentioned in the article is the concern of
swallowing hardware that records private activity. Personally, I would be
hesitant to swallow a sensor knowing that it would be lying in my stomach. I
feel this technology should be used in severe medical cases that may result in
death. Privacy issues are also a patient concern. Patients may feel they would
not know where their data is going or who is seeing it, however, medical
confidentiality has always been taken seriously and the use of a helpful
technology should not change that.
Au-Yeung, Angel. “Take Your Medicine: This $1.5 Billion Health Startup's Smart Pills Keep Patients From Forgetting.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 1 Apr. 2019, www.forbes.com/sites/angelauyeung/2019/04/01/take-your-medicine-this-15-billion-health-startups-smart-pills-keep-patients-from-forgetting/#12f894404d74.
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