SmartPill evaluates, evacuates your GI tract
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted November 11th 2009 11:04AM
posted November 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.
easy going in than coming out.
It looks big and I may think twice before having this it is really big....
No Deposit, No Return
Haha! This reminds me of a cringe-inducing story:
I was considerably sick for the last few years until they removed my whole large intestine about 7 months ago. Unfortunately I got to experience all sorts of fun tests, some including things like this device. I remember I had to swallow a pill that had a camera surrounded by six or so tiny LEDs on one end. I swallowed the pill at the doctor's office and then the put this wireless receiver around my waist so the little camera pill could send the images to the receiver to be stored and viewed later.
I don't remember the exact interval, but the camera pill would take a picture every few seconds. When I was at the office they told me multiple times that if I noticed the pill had been passed, to leave it, flush it and call the office. Different peoples' systems work at different speeds.
When I went back, I asked my doctor why they had stressed that so much, since it seemed to be common sense. He said a lady had the procedure done a few months prior and when they went to review the images, they saw pictures of her intestine and then a picture of the camera pill submerged in water. Then the pictures showed what wound up being someone reaching into the toilet, taking the pill out, over to the sink, washing it off, and then being swallowed again!!! Hahaha. So gross. I guess they called her about it and she said the pill was passed so quickly that she thought she had done something wrong, so she took it again.
Even if these new pills say they can be used again, I wouldn't. No thanks.
--Eric
ewww....
How on earth is this comment not modded up? tl;dnr?
Anyway, wow, that's a ridiculous story.
I desperately want to say that your story is full of crap. Not because it is, but just because, it seems like the only way to respond.
Judging by some of these posts it’s clear that most of you, if not all, are too young to remember the movie Fantastic Voyage. Proving once again, if you can think it; it can be done.
Regards,
Dan
Fantastic Voyage crossed my mind too.
Ooooooooooooooooooooooo, Rachel Welch. In spandex no less.
http://www.flixster.com/movie/fantastic-voyage-2010-photos
Now, how much more interesting would the movie have been if the ship would have been ejected from the patient's bottom :-), rather than coming out of his [delete movie spoiler for those under 40 who haven't seen the movie]
There's a great story, probably apocryphal, where a fake GP in the UK was only discovered after many years of fraudulent practice because he proscribed suppositories to an old man to be taken orally.
Commenting on the discovery of the fake doc, the old man said "Those pills he proscribed me were useless, I might have well have shoved them up my a**!"
One pill makes you larger
And one pill makes you small
And the ones that doctor gives you
Display your intestines on the wall
Go ask Alice
When she's ten feet tall
That thing is huge - no way I could swallow that without choking
now that is what she said
Can't believe it hasn't been said yet, so here goes...
I, for one, welcome our GI-tract-traversing robot overlords....
The Next iPod Shuffle.
Goes Where You Go.
Goes When You Go.
Make sure it's not a used one before you put it in your mouth...
This thing looks like it could turn out to be a piece of crap.
I put down my sandwich when it got to the part about 'temperature'.
For a 'pill' that huge, they'd have to give me a tracheotomy.
You'd have a hard time coughing it out of your lungs.
(New computer refuses to remember my username and password for this site and it just shouted "You must provdie an E-Mail!")
I smell a "refurb" joke in here somewhere?
You sure can smell something in there somewhere, if they were "refurb"ed!
i'll take the red pill
For what it's worth, the company behind this is in Buffalo, within spitting distance of where the (Buffalo) Chicken Wing was invented. . . .
Make up your own punchline.
Finally! A pill that lets people know when they're full of crap! :P
I see how this thing works. The doctor shows you this massive pill you need to swallow and you crap your pants in fear. Constipation solved!
I wonder if you can return a used one for a refund, if you are unsatisfied with the results...
I went in for a Gastric PH test and they tried to shove one of those in through my nose. They have to attach it to the wall of the esophagus so it's hooked to a tube for the placement. They jammed six qtips covered in dilator up my nose to try to open it up enough to fit the thing. They gave up and went with the old way of leaving a wire sticking out. A most unpleasant procedure. Seems like there hasn't been allot done to shrink these things over the last decade.
I don't think I would have a problem swallowing it. Passing it is another matter. If that thing came out at an angle. o.O dear god shoot me.
"As for what happens to the pill itself, we'll let you use your imagination"
Well, what else happens? It goes in your stomach, down through the intenstines, and out of your poop hole.
The size of that pill is relative to the hand holding it. An asian woman with manhands, I'd be willing. But if it's say, The Big Show after a manicure… that may hurt.
Just sayin'
When you hear the crunch, you're there. Now, get your ass to Mars.
Happy G.I. day!
Something that large ought to get a butt load of data!