Lending a new meaning to the old phrase, "Take two aspirin and call me in the morning," U.S. regulators have recently cleared PillCam, a bite-size camera to help screen patients who have trouble with colonoscopies. The ingestible pill camera from Given Imaging is designed to help doctors spot polyps and other early signs of colon cancer.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cleared the device for patients who have had trouble with the unpleasant colonoscopy procedure, which involves probing the large intestine with a tiny camera embedded in a four-foot long, flexible tube. It's a kinder, gentler approach for sure. The Israeli company developed the technology from missile defense systems using a battery-powered camera to take a series of high-speed photos, as the pill slowly winds its way through the patient's intestinal tract over an eight-hour period.
While the images the camera produces aren't quite suitable for framing, they are clear enough for doctors to make a solid medical diagnosis. Even though the images taken by the mini-camera are still not quite as clear as those captured from the in-office procedure, they are quite useful to doctors. Given Imaging has stated that they won't use the PillCam on everyone because they are currently pursuing a more limited market for the device. The PillCam will be given mostly to patients who have trouble undergoing standard colonoscopies.
The company estimates 750,000 U.S. patients are not able to complete the procedure each year, due to anatomy issues, previous surgery or various colon diseases. Even with what looks like a limited market, analysts estimate the new PillCam could generate sales of over $60 million in North America by 2019, with room for expansion as the technology improves. Given Imaging's PillCam costs about $500, which is significantly less than the roughly $4,000 price of a colonoscopy, quite frankly, that's not such a rough pill to swallow.
You had to figure once the tiny, versatile GoPro camera exploded on market, enabling consumers to have a camera recording just about everything they did - regardless of how action-packed and dangerous it was - that the new technology wopuld soon be applied in other industries. So far it looks like the healthcare industry is the first to pounce on the idea.
