Be careful! You are being watched… from within.

A collaboration between medical professionals and microelectronics specialists has resulted in the creation of a cutting-edge tool for monitoring the human body from the inside. A miniature camera housed in a pill will allow scientists to look inside a person quickly and easily. What are the practical benefits of using such a revolutionary invention? Experts offer one scenario: imagine that by prescribing this “medicine,” a doctor will be able to accurately determine a patient’s diagnosis, detect cancer or other serious diseases in the early stages of development. A miniature camera inside the pill allows for high-quality color images to be captured on a monitoring monitor. One of the most promising applications is the detection of esophageal cancer, a disease that is becoming widespread in the United States. The new technology is less expensive and easier to use than existing methods for studying humans. The research results and experimental data are described in detail in an article published in the journal IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering. “The technology we have invented is fundamentally different from the techniques available today. Therefore, this development will become the foundation of the science called endoscopy - this is the future,” says the author of the research project, Eric Seibel from the University of Washington. Statistics show that over the past 30 years, the number of diagnoses of esophageal cancer has increased threefold. This oncological disease always occurs after a condition known in medicine as Barrett's esophagus. Patients diagnosed with Barrett's esophagus can be effectively treated, and the development of fatal cancer can be avoided. However, due to the fact that internal scanning of the digestive system is a very expensive procedure, and not everyone is ready to undergo it in a timely manner, many patients are diagnosed late, and this leads to the development of esophageal cancer. This is why the development of new diagnostic methods that are cheaper and more accessible is of such great importance for medicine, experts believe. Source: health-ua.org