Colonoscopies are a pain in the backside and could be replaced by a smart pill

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A SMART pill that could replace the colonoscopy and revolutionise the diagnosis of gut disorders has been developed by Australian researchers and succeeded in human trials.
The pill which is the size of a vitamin capsule is swallowed by the patient and it measures gases in the stomach as it travels through the intestinal tract over 24 to 48 hours.
The readings are beamed back to the patient’s smart phone and a doctor’s computer.
One in five people will suffer from a gastrointestinal disorder in their lifetime, yet one in three will remain undiagnosed and researchers believe this device will transform their diagnosis.
And for some patients it will replace the need for invasive endoscopies and colonoscopies which involve days of restrictive dieting and purging the system before a camera is inserted into the colon or intestines while the patient is sedated.
More than 460,000 colonoscopies are performed every year in Australia costing over $380 million.

 

But the medical marvel may never make it to the market because researchers need $30-$40 million to conduct phase 2 and phase 3 trials needed before it can be considered safe and effective by medical regulators.
The device was developed by RMIT (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology) researchers Distinguished Professor Kourosh Kalantar Zadeh and engineer Nam Ha and costs just $70 to make.

If doctors want to test for just a single gas in a person’s stomach the price of the device can be as low as $10 per smart pill.
Professor Kalantar Zadeh says many gastrointestinal diseases can’t be diagnosed by a camera because they relate to the microbiome in the gut and establishing the balance of gases in the gut is the best way to detect them.
Currently, one of the only methods for diagnosing these gut disorders, such as malabsorption of carbohydrates, irritable bowel syndrome and inflammable bowel disease, is to measure hydrogen concentrations in the breath, Professor Kalantar Zadeh said.
However, these tests are only 60 per cent effective.
The stomach produces hydrogen, carbon dioxide, methane, oxygen and hydrogen sulphide gases.
“If these gases are active at higher or lower levels than normal it can affect your health,” said Professor Kalantar Zadeh.
“If you have excessive methane or too little you become constipated or get diarrhoea.
“If you have malabsorption of carbohydrates or fructose you produce lots of hydrogen.”

The ingestible technology has demonstrated several thousand -times more sensitivity to gut gases than alternative techniques.
The phase one trials showed the device was safe and that it was excreted by patients in the trial, there was no risk of it being retained in the body.
And the trial showed the capsules could be synched with smartphones.
Professor Kalantar Zadeh says if the device makes it to the market there may need to be a discussion with authorities about whether it can be flushed down the toilet.
To get the device on to the market researchers need $40 million to conduct phase 2 and phase 3 trials on thousands of people to prove to regulators it is safe and effective but to date no funders have come forward.
“If we had investors by tonight we could start trials in six months, “ said Professor Kalantar Zadeh.
“Gas sensing is just the beginning.”
The outcomes of the human trials will be presented next month in Chicago at Digestive Disease Week (DDW), the most significant annual gathering of gastroenterologists and food scientists in the world.
After the non-reusable capsule is excreted, it’s flushed down the toilet.