Reusable swallowable camera pills come cheap these days

Devin Coldewey

Devin Coldewey is a Seattle-based writer and photographer. He has written for the TechCrunch network since 2007. Some posts he’d like you to read: The Dangers of Externalizing Knowledge | Generation i | Surveillant Society | Choose Two | Frame Wars | The User’s Manifesto | Our Great Sin His personal website is coldewey.cc. → Learn More

Friday, February 8th, 2008

pillcamera.jpgResearchers at the University of Washington (where I am kind of an alumnus, go Huskies) have devised an alternative to using a bulky endoscope to look inside a patient’s tracts. They’d use this pill-camera, about the size of a big almond, attached to a thin string, which a patient can easily swallow and regurgitate without too much discomfort. Plus, it only costs $300, which means a hospital could afford about a hundred of them for the cost of an endoscope. I might even get one for the home. Also, I love this quote:

“Never in your life have you ever swallowed anything and it’s still sticking out of your mouth, but once you do it, it’s easy.”

Classic.

Reusable camera pill would be about $300 [CNN]

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