Digital Pills. Patient’s Autonomy to Debate

Abstract

The recent approval by the FDA of the very first digital pill has originated multiple reactions among legal and medical circles. We are refering to the first medicine which incorporates a digital sensor, an ingestible event marker that tracks the medicine ingestion in order to measure the adherence to the patient’s treatment. That data is sent to the patient’s smartphone, to the relatives designated by the patient and to her doctor. Risks originated by this ultimate digital medicine innovation and its utility for the medical community and for other agents in the health care sector is what we analyse in this article.