A recent American Inno article discussed an innovative ingestible capsule that delivers medication to targeted areas of the body at precisely the right time. The product is known as SmartTab, and it consists of a remote-controlled pill comprised of an electronic receiver, monitor, actuator, and active ingredients. After the capsule is swallowed, it travels through the gastrointestinal tract to the correct area of the body via remote control. At that point, the patient is notified on their smart device that the medication is ready for release. After the pill has done its job, it continues through the digestive system and out of the body.
The first application of the SmartTab is treating Crohn’s disease, which causes inflammation along the digestive tract. Strategically-timed release of the active ingredient means the medication’s effectiveness is largely improved. The patented pill has passed preclinical animal studies and will move to human clinical studies in the next few months.
![“Another key [UDI] benefit, because we're calling that product by the same name across the healthcare supply chain… rich and robust data that we can access around supply consumption and utilization rates. One of the buzz terms we've heard during the COVID-19 crisis was what's my burn rate? How fast am I going through gowns, masks, gloves?” – Mike Schiller, Senior Director at AHRMM](https://img.healthcarepackaging.com/files/base/pmmi/all/image/2020/08/UDI.5f4d326e41d53.png?auto=format&fit=crop&h=146&w=340)
