The FDA just approved a 'smart' pill that can track if you're taking your medication

Abilify MyCite medication.
(Image credit: Courtesy Proteus Digital Health)

The Food and Drug Administration just approved its first-ever pill containing electronic tracking sensors. The anti-psychotic drug Abilify MyCite, which treats bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and depressive disorders, uses an electronic signal to record whether or not a patient ingested the pill, Gizmodo reported Tuesday.

When it touches stomach acid, the pill generates an electronic signal, which can be used to send data to medical professionals via a smartphone app and a Bluetooth signal. Sending data requires patients to first sign a consent form allowing their data to be shared with their doctors — as well as up to four selected friends and family members — and also wear a patch on their left rib cage that would transmit the information.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Explore More
Kelly O'Meara Morales

Kelly O'Meara Morales is a staff writer at The Week. He graduated from Sarah Lawrence College and studied Middle Eastern history and nonfiction writing amongst other esoteric subjects. When not compulsively checking Twitter, he writes and records music, subsists on tacos, and watches basketball.