8mo ago

This Tiny Robotic Pill Eliminates The Need For Hospital Visits In Stomach Cancer Detection

www.ibtimes.co.uk This Tiny Robotic Pill Eliminates The Need For Hospital Visits In Stomach Cancer Detection

PillBot, a tiny ingestible robot, could revolutionize gut health exams with AI-powered cameras, making early detection easier from home.

PillBot, a tiny ingestible robot, could revolutionize gut health exams with AI-powered cameras, making early detection easier from home.

17 comments

Very cool, but as someone who has difficulty swallowing pills, I doubt I could get that down. Maybe if my life depended on it.
- They generally don't let the patient try to swallow these without assistance for that reason. A quick gargle with Lidocaine wash to numb the Uvula and lessen gagging, and they just pop it in the back of your throat with a little grabby tool. Works well enough.
- Im hoping for something like this that can check the colon. I also have a hard time swallowing pills as well but to avoid a colonoscopy I will figure it out. Heck as it is it will prevent an endocscopy so I could do it.
  
  currently the battery only lasts 30-4min, so no colonpscopy just yet
  
  Colonoscopy itself is not that bad. They can sedate you so you don't have to experience the procedure.
  The preparation is not so great with the bad tasting lemonade and then going to the toilet for a long time. But suffering through that is worth it compared to not knowing if you have cancer.
  
  I had one of these done for an endoscopy - it ended horribly. It got "stuck" so I ended up having to have surgery for it to be removed.
  Getting that surgery coordinated and scheduled took months all the while my health was declining. Eventually it got so bad that I couldn't hold down food and I had to be pre-admitted to the hospital a month before the procedure and put on IV nutrition...
  Granted I do have an autoimmune GI condition which is what prompted that test in the first place, and the chances of this happening is supposedly quite small but... Yeah I'll take the endoscopy and colonoscopy over even that small chance of going through all of that all over again...
- Maybe it will also come in a suppository form.
  
  It would be going against the current though and would have to be part submarine and part drill.

The Adam Savage video about this was great
https://youtu.be/FmE93ox9e2c?feature=shared

They've had similar pills for like 10-15 years in hospitals. They just take and transmit pictures.
- Yeah I had one of these in the late 2000's. Had to wear a fanny pack to receive the data from it.

17 comments