Medical technology has come so far so fast that we now have a ‘smart pill’ that’s been the subject of debate and controversy.
Once you take the 'smart' pill it sends electronic messages to devices like your tablet; or more specifically your doctor's tablet. Privacy is the big concern of Doctors like Shahan Chowdhury of Integrated Health and Heart, a concierge medical service in Texas.
“Will it be used appropriately? And how does that information that is collected get interpreted? Patients are now giving up one more level of their information. Biotech companies now have the most intimate of their information,” Chowdhury explained.
Researchers like Andrew Boyd, who just coauthored a paper on the smart pill at the University of Illinois-Chicago, say it's not just your doctor that could get this information.
“Your insurance company; your health care provider; everyone is going to know whether or not you took the pill,” Boyd told KTRH News.
The first FDA-approved smart pill is being used in patients with schizophrenia. But we still don't know if these smart pills are going to help the people that take them.