In the Media

Researchers at MIT have developed an ingestible pill that can communicate from the stomach and could be useful in monitoring patients, reports Prabhat Ranjan Mishra for Interesting Engineering. “Set to be incorporated into existing pill capsules, the system contains a biodegradable radio frequency antenna,” writes Mishra. “After it sends out the signal that the pill has been consumed, most components break down in the stomach while a tiny RF chip passes out of the body through the digestive tract. This type of system could be useful for monitoring transplant patients who need to take immunosuppressive drugs, or people with infections such as HIV or TB, who need treatment for an extended period of time.”