Northern Michigan's News LeaderHealthy Living: Smart Pills

Healthy Living: Smart Pills

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They work their way through your body, sending signals instead of delivering medicine. Right now, smart pills are helping solve medical mysteries and can do a whole lot more. Robyn Haines tells us how they're making a tough diagnosis, much easier to swallow in Healthy Living.

 

For two and a half years doctors couldn't figure out what was wrong with Jesse Krusinkski. Then at the Cleveland Clinic, doctor Lori Mahajan recommended Jesse take a smart pill. The pill cam has a small camera on board. It wirelessly beams pictures to a device at about two images per second.

 

It allows doctors to look deep into the small intestines frame by frame, where traditional endoscopy tools can't reach.  Without the pill cam, surgery or other invasive procedures would be needed to get these images. Jesse's pictures revealed dozens of ulcers. Doctor's diagnosed him with Crohn's disease.   

 

Meanwhile, researchers in Japan are working on the mermaid.  It also takes pictures of the digestive system, but with its fin it can be guided to certain areas by remote control! 

 

The pill cam procedure costs about 15-hundred dollars. The doctor tells us most insurance companies do cover the cost when it's used to investigate bleeding in the small intestines. 

         

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