Ingestible sensor could help people with HIV stick to medication regimen, UCLA-led study finds

For people living with HIV, sticking to a prescribed medication regimen is a critical part of staying healthy. However, having to deal with the side effects caused by those medications —nausea and dizziness among them — can lead people to skip doses. Now, a UCLA-led study of 130 people with HIV suggests that a tiny piece of technology could play a big role in encouraging people to take their medicine on time.The research was led byHonghu Liu, chair of the UCLA School of Dentistry ’s section of public and population health. Scientists evaluated whether people were more likely to keep current on their antiretroviral drugs if they used an ingestible electronic sensor system — a tiny microchip inside a pill capsule that wirelessly sends data to a server as well as reminders to their mobile phones.The findings, published today in The Lancet Ebiomedicine, revealed that after 28 weeks — 16 weeks of collecting sensor data followed by 12 weeks of continued observation — people who used the ingestible sensor had higher plasma drug concentrations in their bodies than those in a control group who did not use the technology.Courtesy of Honghu LiuHonghu LiuIn addition, people who used the technology had much lower HIV viral loads than the control group; and 90% of those who used the sensors said they were “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with the system.“Ingestible sensor technology is the most accurate IT-based method for measuring, monitoring and enhancing adherence...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news