Swallowable Robot Pill Could Perform Remote Diagnosis and Treatment of Illness within GI Tract

Endoscopy, which involves inserting a camera directly into an organ for examination, is often an expensive and unpleasant procedure, and also carries risks, such as perforation of the stomach or damage to soft tissue. Now, a remote-controlled pill-sized robotic capsule that can be swallowed by patients could perform remote diagnosis of illness within the GI tract, followed by treatments beginning with biopsy, cauterization of bleeds, and removal of polyps.

Endiatx (Redwood City, CA, USA) is developing a pill-sized robot to explore and perform work inside the body, starting with the GI tract. Endiatx’s PillBot could make for cheaper, more efficient endoscopy by allowing the procedure to be performed without the patient having to go to the doctor’s office. The small PillBot robotic device can be sent to a patient’s home and a medical professional can remotely pilot it to efficiently scan the body. The ingestible pill will allow doctors to view the digestive tract without the need for cables or complex procedures, thus reducing patient discomfort as well as making it easier for doctors. The ability of doctors to actively control the diagnostic robot revolutionizes the possibilities for both diagnostics and treatment options as compared to the current types of "capsule endoscopy" sensors and cameras, which can only move passively through the GI tract.

Endiatx’s technology centers around the company’s unique propulsion system which allows its pill robot to actively navigate the entire length of the GI tract in approximately 30 minutes with real-time video control. This allows the device to compete directly with traditional endoscopes and colonoscopies and replace them with a non-invasive process that does not require sedation. The company believes that the GI tract is the appropriate environment to debut its propulsion technology and envisions future generations of the company’s platform being used to take diagnostics and treatment throughout the body. According to the company, a remote surgical platform inside the body can be as big of a leap forward as minimally invasive laparoscopic surgery was to the traditional surgical cutdown.

In the future, Endiatx’s pill robot could allow microsurgery to be performed at home with the surgeon controlling the device from the office. Endiatx also expects its pill robots to take tissue samples and allow for scopes that would detect early-stage pancreatic cancer. Endiatx has already successfully demonstrated an in-human trial of PillBot by providing a live swallow demo of the robotic capsule.

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