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Swallowable Pill

Wearables and a variety of mHealth devices are at the forefront of a consumer led revolution in healthcare. A third category of innovation is the swallowable. A team of researchers at the University of Glasgow has developed a swallowable video pill which can detect cancers in the throat and gut. The video pill is not new but the innovation is built-in fluorescent light which can allow better analysis of the video returned from the pill. The researchers have squeezed a tiny fluorescent light into a tiny pill, and the pill can remain in the gastrointestinal tract for up to 14 hours. Using fluorescent light makes spotting cancer much easier because it can more clearly identify rich blood supplies known to support tumor growth. The light allows identification of features which could otherwise be easily missed. The new development is not ready for sale but research is continuing. The researchers published a paper on their work in the journal Scientific Reports.