Ingested Sensors – Fancy One?

Forget wearable technology (such as Google Glass). It may not be too much longer before sensors are actually put inside your body, according to Cadie Thompson in her article in Entrepreneur.com, here.

It may sound a little bit futuristic and far-fetched, but the reality is that ingestible sensors and implantable chips are already in use and growing. “We are going to see more sensors everywhere. It’s only a matter of time before those migrate under our skin into our bodies,” said Peter Eckersley, the lead technologist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

“Much like wearable devices, which can capture data about a person’s activity levels, sensors inside the body can be used to collect information about what is going on inside a person’s body. There’s going to be a ubiquitous data collection. Right now, the data is coming from the phone and wearable devices, but eventually some will be within our bodies. And having that data available can mean enormous health benefits,” Eckersley said.

While this sort of technology may play a big role in the future of how patients are monitored, it’s going to impact how drugs are brought to market more in the near-term. Ingestible sensors can enable pharmaceutical companies to develop drugs more quickly and cost-efficiently because the devices can provide real-time data about how the medications are working.

Interestingly, at least for me, is that IT giant Oracle, which has invested in the company, is using Proteus’s technology to give its clinical trial application customers the ability to access real-time data provided by these sensors to help improve clinical trial efficiency.

For me, these developments naturally lead to technology taking over from auditors spending weeks and months evaluating the credibility and accuracy of financial transactions in a company’s accounting records. Software, which eliminates influence over auditors by a company’s financial time, software with complete and accurate integrity: It could change the audit scene for ever.

When will it arrive? In 2 years’ time? No, but watch this space in 10 years’ time. By then, we could see millions of auditors on the dole and wishing they’d taken a different degree at University.