SmartPill evaluates, evacuates your GI tract
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted Nov 11th 2009 11:04AM
posted Nov 11th 2009 11:04AM
We've seen a number of medical manufacturers with a common goal: getting you to swallow microprocessor-filled horse pills for things like cauterizing small, internal wounds and dispensing drugs -- and now you can add the "evaluation of constipation" to the list! SmartPill is designed to cruise the GI tract, where it measures temperature and pH, provides temporal-spacial analysis, and differentiates between normal and abnormal transit times -- you know, "the usual." The data from the pill is transmitted to a receiver for later analysis by your doctor. As for what happens to the pill itself, we'll let you use your imagination. This one should be available for shipment in January 2010. PR after the break. And please: keep the comments classy.
SmartPill Announces 510(k) Release for Evaluation of Constipation
Physicians Have New Method for Evaluating GI Motility Disorder
Nov 06, 2009
Buffalo, NY – SmartPill Corporation announced today the recent U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) 510(k) release of the SmartPill GI Monitoring System, version 2.0, for the evaluation of colonic transit time in patients with suspected chronic constipation. The new 510(k) release was an expansion of SmartPill's previous indication for use in evaluating patients with suspected delayed gastric emptying (gastroparesis).
"This is a significant milestone for the Company," remarks David Barthel, President and CEO of the SmartPill Corporation. "The new indication expands the market capabilities of SmartPill, allowing the device to evaluate an additional disease (chronic constipation) and more importantly, enhances our objective of improving patient care."
The SmartPill GI Monitoring System, version 2.0, allows physicians to measure pH, pressure and temperature throughout the entire gastrointestinal (GI) tract, providing whole gut and regional gut (gastric, small bowel and colonic) transit times, a pH profile of the entire GI tract and GI tract pressure patterns. SmartPill's ability to differentiate slow (abnormal) transit from normal transit, while providing regional transit times for both the upper and lower GI tract, is an important assessment for physicians when evaluating GI motility disorders and guiding appropriate therapy.
"SmartPill's recent validation study has proved it to be a reliable, ambulatory and standardized technique for measuring transit throughout the entire GI tract," comments Dr. Satish Rao, a distinguished clinician in neurogastroenterology and GI motility, from the University of Iowa. "For clinical purposes, SmartPill provides a single test that comprehensively assesses regional transit times and reduces the duration of colon transit study, thereby improving patient compliance and providing physicians with better direction for managing their patients."
The SmartPill GI Monitoring System features the SmartPill Capsule, a wireless, ingestible medical device about the size of a large vitamin pill. The patient ingests the single-use SmartPill Capsule in the doctor's office and then returns to their daily activities. As the Capsule travels through the GI tract, data is wirelessly transmitted to the SmartPill Data Receiver. The SmartPill Data Receiver is later returned to the physician's office where the data is downloaded to a computer providing gastric, small bowel, large bowel, and whole gut transit times.
The SmartPill GI Monitoring System, version 2.0, will be available for shipment in January 2010.
About SmartPill Corporation
SmartPill Corporation is a leading manufacturer and developer of capsule-based medical devices that aid in the diagnosis, definition and therapeutic intervention of gastrointestinal (GI) motility disorders and diseases. The company's flagship product – the SmartPill GI Monitoring System – features the SmartPill Capsule, an ingestible medical device that provides data, heretofore unavailable, that can assist physicians in the evaluation of gastroparesis and chronic constipation. The SmartPill GI Monitoring System was granted initial 510(k) release from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in July 2006 and for the evaluation of colonic transit in October 2009. Dr. Satish Rao serves as a scientific advisory board member to the SmartPill Corporation. Visit www.SmartPillCorp.com for more information.
Physicians Have New Method for Evaluating GI Motility Disorder
Nov 06, 2009
Buffalo, NY – SmartPill Corporation announced today the recent U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) 510(k) release of the SmartPill GI Monitoring System, version 2.0, for the evaluation of colonic transit time in patients with suspected chronic constipation. The new 510(k) release was an expansion of SmartPill's previous indication for use in evaluating patients with suspected delayed gastric emptying (gastroparesis).
"This is a significant milestone for the Company," remarks David Barthel, President and CEO of the SmartPill Corporation. "The new indication expands the market capabilities of SmartPill, allowing the device to evaluate an additional disease (chronic constipation) and more importantly, enhances our objective of improving patient care."
The SmartPill GI Monitoring System, version 2.0, allows physicians to measure pH, pressure and temperature throughout the entire gastrointestinal (GI) tract, providing whole gut and regional gut (gastric, small bowel and colonic) transit times, a pH profile of the entire GI tract and GI tract pressure patterns. SmartPill's ability to differentiate slow (abnormal) transit from normal transit, while providing regional transit times for both the upper and lower GI tract, is an important assessment for physicians when evaluating GI motility disorders and guiding appropriate therapy.
"SmartPill's recent validation study has proved it to be a reliable, ambulatory and standardized technique for measuring transit throughout the entire GI tract," comments Dr. Satish Rao, a distinguished clinician in neurogastroenterology and GI motility, from the University of Iowa. "For clinical purposes, SmartPill provides a single test that comprehensively assesses regional transit times and reduces the duration of colon transit study, thereby improving patient compliance and providing physicians with better direction for managing their patients."
The SmartPill GI Monitoring System features the SmartPill Capsule, a wireless, ingestible medical device about the size of a large vitamin pill. The patient ingests the single-use SmartPill Capsule in the doctor's office and then returns to their daily activities. As the Capsule travels through the GI tract, data is wirelessly transmitted to the SmartPill Data Receiver. The SmartPill Data Receiver is later returned to the physician's office where the data is downloaded to a computer providing gastric, small bowel, large bowel, and whole gut transit times.
The SmartPill GI Monitoring System, version 2.0, will be available for shipment in January 2010.
About SmartPill Corporation
SmartPill Corporation is a leading manufacturer and developer of capsule-based medical devices that aid in the diagnosis, definition and therapeutic intervention of gastrointestinal (GI) motility disorders and diseases. The company's flagship product – the SmartPill GI Monitoring System – features the SmartPill Capsule, an ingestible medical device that provides data, heretofore unavailable, that can assist physicians in the evaluation of gastroparesis and chronic constipation. The SmartPill GI Monitoring System was granted initial 510(k) release from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in July 2006 and for the evaluation of colonic transit in October 2009. Dr. Satish Rao serves as a scientific advisory board member to the SmartPill Corporation. Visit www.SmartPillCorp.com for more information.
hi
Hi Matt
We're always classy
I'm from San Diego too.
I'm Ron Burgundy?
I can't think of anything classy to say, except that I hope it's not designed for reuse.
I heard the pills taste like crap
I wonder how many Courics this thing weighs.
What a crappy idea...
now that's a crapgadget
That doesn't look disposable, I hope these aren't meant to be reusable...
In related news, a new probe is set to explore Uranus.
Wow, that thing is pretty large.... Oh well, I can't say anything else if I want to remain classy.
Still, if you weren't constipated before you swallowed it...
That's what she said...
u swallow this and its gonno be the last thing u'll ever swallow
I'll wait for the SmartNanoPill
Hasn't this been on HOUSE since like season 1?
Been in use in hospitals for decades now I think, real ones, not just TV ones.
The New Smart Pill! Now in an easy and reusable form!
That looks like the bug that was put in Neo in the Matrix.
You're going to help us Mr. Anderson, whether you want to poo or not
It's up to you, Neo. The blue pill, the red pill, or this cool see-through pill with all the electronic stuff in it.
That thing looks like something straight out of The Matrix... I'm not sure I want it anywhere near me, let alone surfing my guts.
Do you take the new pill or the brown pill?
Poop! There I said it.
Poop! There it is!
GI tract issues suck, so if this can help people with them, then that's great.
I love the above classy comments
"And please: keep the comments classy."
Thanks for the laugh today, Engadget.
If this machine can be used to evacuate the lower GI tract, then those of us who get colonoscopies, (just wait you young ones), we will not have to drink that gallon of nasty stuff to evacuate us!
Amen to that!
"I can't swallow that!"
"Well, then, good news! It's a suppository!"
+1 Futurama
+2 throwback
ROFL! That's the best one so far! I'm still laughing!
being a doctor i assure you that this kind of 'pills' have been around for some time now, some taking all kinds of readings, others transmitting live pictures, others taking pictures that can later be reviewed by the doctor, and i can also say that they are a BIG thing, not because of their size, but because they help in us diagnosing a large number of disease, lots of which are cancers, and so we can then prescribe the right treatment. before they were invented there were 2 good ways to have visuals from there (the intestines): the endoscope (a large fiber optics tube that went in through your anus) or plain old surgery, so be sure they ARE a good thing.
PS: most of them are reusable (it is something to be grossed about) but giving their price tag it is hard to throw them away after just one use :p
you keep them in a jar of blue liquid like barbers keep their combs?
They ARE reusable? I'm sorry, but that leaves a bad taste in my mouth...
If you know someone with a GI problem (IBD, Crohns, etc..) I can assure you these things are a big help. My wife has Crohns and this is a great deal easier that having a colonoscopy every six months.
I still wonder whats easier to shallow, a reused one or the bill for a new one? I take it you don't actually tell people they are reused before you have people swallow them, or at all, do you?
No, they sugar them first
Job Posting: SmartPill recovery specialist
Pay: Not nearly enough
Where's Dirty Jobs when you need them?
Now if they'd just add a door to let the tiny men out, we could shoot a sequel to "Inner Space"...
There's an App for that.
That seems really big, but if I had a choice between this and a naso-gastric tube getting jammed down my nostril, I would take the pill because I can tell you the tube really hurts like hell.
Just eat corn or black beans. They are nature's marker. You'll know your transit time really well after that.
I hope that it doesn't play the "Roto-Rooter" theme as it does it's work.
GIIIIIIIIIIIIII TRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACT….
Is there any indication this won't come out... sideways? As that seems really unpleasant.