Physician offers ‘SmartPill’ GI monitoring system

HealthLeaders News Brief, May 8, 2007

Leonard S. Fischer, M.D., gastroenterologist with Fairfax, VA-based Gastrointestinal Medicine Associates, has deployed the SmartPill GI Monitoring System, a company press release says. The SmartPill GI Monitoring System aids in the evaluation of patients with gastrointestinal motility disorders, including those suffering from symptoms of slow gastric emptying, a condition known as gastroparesis. Symptoms of gastroparesis include heartburn, nausea, vomiting of undigested food, abdominal bloating, erratic blood glucose levels and spasms of the stomach wall.
The condition affects a wide range of patients, including up to an estimated 50 percent of diabetics, as well as those suffering from Parkinson’s disease. “With SmartPill, there are clear improvements in the diagnosis of motility disorders in patients-and better control of monitoring conditions for physicians,” Fischer said. “It is a great opportunity to offer patients SmartPill, particularly because it is administered in an office setting, does not involve radiation and is very easy to tolerate.”
The SmartPill pH.p Capsule is a wireless, ingestible medical device - about the size of a large vitamin pill - that measures pressure and pH, gastric emptying time, combined small and large bowel transit time, and total transit time. The capsule travels through the gastrointestinal tract, collecting and transmitting data to the SmartPill Data Receiver. The receiver, slightly larger than a cell phone, is worn on a patient’s belt or around the neck on a lanyard.
A patient ingests the single-use SmartPill pH.p Capsule in the doctor’s office and then returns to their daily activities. Within a day or two, the disposable capsule is excreted naturally from the body. The patient then returns to the doctor, who downloads the information from the SmartPill Data Receiver.