Advantages of Electronic Pill | disadvantages of Electronic Pill
This page covers advantages and disadvantages of Electronic Pill. It mentions Electronic Pill advantages or benefits and Electronic Pill disadvantages or drawbacks.
What is Electronic Pill?
Introduction:
After years of research, wireless devices are developed in the form of capsules which are used for various
analysis and treatment of diseases. These electronic pills will free users from invasive methods e.g. catheters,
endoscopic instruments or radioisotopes for collecting information about the digestive tract. Drug delivery using electronic
pill will be controlled with onboard electronics. This enables precise and adaptable delivery patterns which is not possible
using other means.
Image Courtesy: MEEE Services
As shown, electronic pill consists of following parts viz. drug reservoir, delivery pump, MCU (Microcontroller Unit), wireless transmitter/receiver, sensors etc. The electronic pills are either swallowed and passed through the gastro-intestinal tract or are implanted under skin.
Electronic pill are classified as two types as follows.
• Electronic pill housing camera and other parts which collects data from disease infected areas and
transmits the same to the outside system for further analysis.
• Electronic pill housing only sensors used to measure pH level, temperature, oxygen level and so on.
Benefits or advantages of Electronic Pill
Following are the benefits or advantages of Electronic Pill:
➨It is used for disease detection and abnormalities in the human being.
➨It is smaller in size and hence can easily be moved through digestive system.
➨It is very accurate, precise and effective.
➨It offers high sensitivity, good reliability and life times.
➨It offers very long life of cells (about 40 hours), less power (about 12.1 mWatt), current (about 3.9 mA)
and voltage (about 3.1V) requirement.
➨It is made of bio-compatible material which doesn't cause any harm to the body.
Drawbacks or disadvantages of Electronic Pill
Following are the challenges or drawbacks or disadvantages of Electronic Pill:
➨Patients with gastrointestinal structures or narrowing are not good candidates for this procedure
due to risk of obstruction. Nanotechnology based rice grain sized motor helps in overcoming this drawback.
➨For camera type electronic pill, it is not possible to control the behaviour of the camera.
Bi-directional telemetry camera helps in overcoming this situation.
➨The electronic pill will get stucked if there is a partial obstruction in the small intestine.
➨It is very expensive and as a result not affordable by poor patients.
➨It is not reusable.
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