Week 3: Photos & Images - Thing #7

I am interested in the ongoing advances in wireless capsule endoscopy--called by gihealth.com as "The Camera in a Pill." Although the idea began in 1981, usage required technology that was unavailable. Now, technology is enabling a variety of uses--diagnostic and therapeutic for this device. You may hear it called the "Given Video Capsule," with the capacity to take 50,000 color images during its 8-hour movement through the digestive tract. Then there is Johns Hopkins' "Fluoropill," which uses magnetic coils to control movement of the capsule and a molecular camera that can release fluorescent probe compound or therapeutic drugs--with a possible capability of securing and storing harvested tissue samples. This pill-sized technology can examine areas of the digestive system (especially in the small intestine) that are currently not able to be satisfactorily seen--and without the discomfort and sedation required for traditional endoscopic examinations.