SBIR Phase I: Electronic Pills for Medication Compliance

这个小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第一阶段项目将评估电子药丸用于药物依从性监测的使用情况。药物依从性监测在(除其他领域外)药物临床试验、老年医学和精神健康/成瘾医学中至关重要。这个第一阶段的项目将研究体内监测电子设备在药物依从性方面的应用。将对三种类型的技术进行研究、原型和评估，以进行药物依从性监测。此外，该团队将严格研究通信渠道(人体躯干)，以实现这一点，并研究未来许多潜在的监测技术。该项目的目标是设计电子药丸技术并将其制成药物胶囊，或者作为现有胶囊或药丸的涂层。手持式射频通信设备将感知胃肠道中是否存在药丸，并肯定地确认服药方案是适当的。这项电子药丸技术和研发将有助于扩大快速增长的活体遥测领域。通过人体躯干进行传感的传输特性和最低要求的研究是设计和制造无线、低功率、活体生物遥测设备的重要步骤。此外，服药依从性在许多医学领域都非常重要。特别是，更好的遵从性监测可以极大地降低与FDA批准药品相关的成本，并为准确确定低概率副作用提供显著改进的数据。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will evaluate the use of electronic pills for medication compliance monitoring. Medication compliance monitoring is critical in (among other areas) pharmaceutical clinical trials, geriatrics, and mental health/addiction medicine. This Phase I project will study the application of in vivo monitoring electronics to medication compliance. Three types of technologies will be studied, prototyped, and evaluated for medication compliance monitoring. In addition, the team will rigorously study the communication channel (the human torso) for this and many future potential monitoring techniques. The goal of the project is to design and prototype electronic pill technology either into a medication capsule or as a coating on an existing capsule or pill. A handheld RF communication device will sense the presence of the pill in the GI tract and positively confirm that the medication regimen was followedappropriately.This electronic pill technology and R&D will help expand the rapidly growing field of in vivo telemetry. The study of the transmission characteristics and minimal requirements for sensing through the human torso is an important step to designing and building wireless, low power, in vivo devices for biotelemetry. Additionally, the field of medication compliance is tremendously important in many areas of medicine. In particular, better compliance monitoring can greatly reduce the costs associated with FDA approval of pharmaceuticals as well as provide dramatically improved data for accurate determination of low probability side effects.