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Greeno, the medical director of the Masonic Cancer Clinic at the University of Minnesota, has come to realize that some patients, like children hiding themselves from a parent, will fudge the truth to avoid their disapproval, even when their health is at risk.
To fight patients' fibbing and forgetfulness, Greeno has begun to deploy a new tool in recent months: a pill embedded with a tiny, ingestible sensor. The sensor transmits data from the patient's body to a wearable patch placed on their abdomen, which then connects to a mobile app that patients and doctors can access.
That data offers a new window into patients' health and behavior, Greeno said, allowing doctors to remotely monitor someone's heart rate, activity level and sleep cycle. The sensor, which is about the size of a grain of sand and dissolves in the gastrointestinal tract, also such doctors when a patient has ingested their medication. The information is compiled in a database that doctors can access from their devices.
At the Masonic Cancer Clinic, a part of a pilot program, doctors have begun a pairing of the sensor – made by a California company called Proteus Digital Health – with a common chemotherapy drug used to treat stage 3 and 4 colorectal cancer patients.
"When we give people chemotherapy in the clinic with an intravenous drug, we're able to badess the dose and timing they're doing well enough to continue getting treatment," Greeno said. "But when you send them home with a bottle of pills, you do not know when they are taking care of you."
"You'd think for cancer treatment that patients would be pretty diligent, and that's not always the case, for a variety of reasons," he added.
Ingestible technology has been introduced to many experts and ethicists since 2017, and it is likely to be vulnerable to hackers.
Jason Christopher, chief technology officer at the cybersecurity company Axio, told Forbes last year. "Forget health record databases – how do you patch a digital pill?"
Despite the concerns, many experts have pointed out that the technology will help doctors ensure patients are taking their prescribed medication. Not taking medicine – or "medication nonadherence" in the health-care world – is a "common and costly problem," according to a study cited by the National Center for Biotechnology Information.
"Approximately 30 percent to 50 percent of U.S. adults are not adherent to long-term medications in an estimated $ 100 billion in preventable annual costs," according to the 2013 study.
NCBI researchers, NCBI researchers say it is more complex than it seems and often has multiple complicating factors. Greeno agreed, pointing out that his patients are not always lying about their behavior. Sometimes older patients have trouble opening pill bottles. Other times, he said, they're so tired and foggy that they struggle to adhere to a rigorous schedule that requires them to be ingested multiple pills each day. And sometimes, he said, they're struggling to deal with a drug's side effects.
The problem, Greeno said, is that chemotherapy drugs can have a very narrow therapeutic window and often cost between $ 10,000 and $ 20,000 per month.
"Greeno said, noting that when the patient was going to be her pills, but when her daughter was gone, she would not. "Normally, I'm not sure, but I'm going to be in the clinic now, but I'm not sure what's going to happen next."
Brenda Jans Darling, 45, has another reason she is trying to get rid of medications. She has a working mother of two juggling with a daily onslaught of activities.
Darling, a sixth-grade math teacher in Minnesota, says she thought it sounded interesting. What she quickly discovered, she said, was that she was enjoying her life. She also found that information useful, comparing it to a "medical Fitbit."
What she finds most useful, however, is one of the most important things in the world.
"I'll be having breakfast and one kid needs a license and I'm trying to make sure I'm doing it right now. , "Darling said. "Life happens, right, and it can be tough to keep track of everything."
Now when she gets it, she gets an alert on her iPhone that says, "which she finds extremely useful.
Darling said she is not worried about having an ever-growing number of people who will be battling.
"I'm going to do whatever I can to advance cancer research so we can find a cure to our modern-day plague," she said.
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