Researchers have designed a sensor necklace to record the date and time a specially designed pill is swallowed, which they hope will increase drug compliance by the elderly and those in clinical drug trials.

"Forgetfulness is a huge problem, especially among the elderly, but so is taking the medication at the wrong time, stopping too early or taking the wrong dose," said Maysam Ghovanloo, assistant professor of the Georgia Institute of Technology, who began the work two years ago in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at North Carolina State University.

"Studies show that drug noncompliance costs the country billions of dollars each year as a result of re-hospitalization, complications, disease progression, and even death."

The MagneTrace system incorporates tiny round magnets into pills and capsules coated with an inert, insoluble polymer. The magnets will pass through a patient’s digestive system quickly, and are weak enough not to clump together while in the body. The necklace takes advantage of the same magnetic sensors that are used in GPS units, spaced in pairs about its circumference. The sensors are driven by a control unit with a wireless transceiver that sends data to a smart phone or computer to log the time and number of pills taken. This information can then be forwarded to the patient’s physician or family.

The device was tested with an artificial neck made from a length of PVC pipe packed with plastic drinking straws. The MagneTrace necklace was about 94 percent correct in detecting magnetic pills, and it produced about 6 percent false positives when pills were passed through areas outside of the correct detection zone; two numbers that Ghovanloo believes he can improve.

By monitoring actual ingestion, MagneTrace outpaces other drug compliance devices that are normally non-ingestion monitors. "Other devices just tell the doctor if a pill bottle was opened. These devices are not smart enough to tell how many pills, if any, were removed from the bottle, nor if the pill was actually ingested by the intended patient," said Ghovanloo.

MagneTrace can’t be tricked because the algorithms it uses are smart enough to only look for the pill as it passes through the esophagus.

This technology provides a convenient, yet low cost method to help individuals adhere with their prescribed medication regimens and help researchers and pharmaceutical companies conduct more accurate clinical trials on new drugs.