According to a report from Signs of the Times, "two major drugs companies" in the UK are set to begin clinical trials of Proteus Biomedical's wireless pill technology, Raisin. Trials will reportedly commence within the next 12 months.

Imperial College London cardiologist and professor Nick Peters will coordinate the trials.

"This is all about empowering patients and their families because it measures wellness, and people can actually be tracked getting better," Peters said. "Psychologically speaking, that's hugely helpful for patients and enormously reassuring for carers. Normally patients would have to be in hospital to get this level of feedback, so the hope is that it frees up beds and saves the NHS money."

The article lists medication adherence for birth control, post-op management, psychiatric and elderly care as prime use cases for Proteus Biomedical's Raisin technology, which runs on an electric charge generated by the patient's stomach acid. The charge is detected through the patient's body by a sensing patch on the patient's skin. The patch records the time and date that the pill is digested and also measures some vitals like heart rate, activity and respiratory patterns. The information is then sent to the patient's mobile phone and then onto the internet for caregivers to review and analyze.

Proteus says that the silicon microchips embedded in the pills can be invisible to patients and can be added to any pill during manufacturing. Last week during a panel discussion mobihealthnews helped organize, Proteus CEO Andrew Thompson described the market opportunity ahead of the company as $100 billion.

For more on the report, read the rest of the article from Signs of the Times