PillBot, a tiny ingestible robot, could revolutionize gut health exams with AI-powered cameras, making early detection easier from home.

  • @henfredemars
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    185 days ago

    Very cool, but as someone who has difficulty swallowing pills, I doubt I could get that down. Maybe if my life depended on it.

    • @just_another_person@lemmy.world
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      275 days ago

      They generally don’t let the patient try to swallow these without assistance for that reason. A quick gargle with Lidocaine wash to numb the Uvula and lessen gagging, and they just pop it in the back of your throat with a little grabby tool. Works well enough.

    • HubertManne
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      55 days ago

      Im hoping for something like this that can check the colon. I also have a hard time swallowing pills as well but to avoid a colonoscopy I will figure it out. Heck as it is it will prevent an endocscopy so I could do it.

        • HubertManne
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          25 days ago

          yeah may need one of those systems where it can generate its own power. Someday.

            • HubertManne
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              15 days ago

              I meant more things I have seen where the micromachine can harvest energy from body processes. Only a small amount of energy can be gotten but most of these things are pretty low energy.

      • Russ
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        14 days ago

        I had one of these done for an endoscopy - it ended horribly. It got “stuck” so I ended up having to have surgery for it to be removed.

        Getting that surgery coordinated and scheduled took months all the while my health was declining. Eventually it got so bad that I couldn’t hold down food and I had to be pre-admitted to the hospital a month before the procedure and put on IV nutrition…

        Granted I do have an autoimmune GI condition which is what prompted that test in the first place, and the chances of this happening is supposedly quite small but… Yeah I’ll take the endoscopy and colonoscopy over even that small chance of going through all of that all over again…

        • HubertManne
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          14 days ago

          you have convinced me in a very real way. Even if the chance is slight that is aweful.

      • @Grimy@lemmy.world
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        5 days ago

        It would be going against the current though and would have to be part submarine and part drill.

    • Larry13
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      5 days ago

      Yeah I had one of these in the late 2000’s. Had to wear a fanny pack to receive the data from it.