How Much Privacy Are You Prepared to Give Up in the Name of Science?

If I could time travel into the future, my first port of call would be the point where medical technology is at its best because, like most people on this planet, I have this aversion to dying.

Neal Ashe

The recent advances in medical technology have been fantastic and I’ve just read about a new pill that amazed me. This is no ordinary pill; it’s an ingestible sensor. The new pill, referred to as a digital drug, has the ability to communicate with your Smartphone. The sensor, once swallowed, sends signals to a wireless patch attached to a person's skin. Every time you take your medication this ingestible sensor collects data and sends the data to you or your doctor. Currently there are two companies that manufacture this technology. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is going to be reviewing a version of the psychiatric medication Abilify, equipped with the sensor microchip. Clearly this is ground breaking technology that has the potential to go way beyond this psychiatric medication and revolutionize healthcare. Isn’t it just fantastic!

But, this fabulous technology comes with a downside. Nowhere have I read about how this very sensitive and personal information is going to be protected during transmission. Michael Teehan, the former president of the Canadian Psychiatric Association and the Deputy Head of the Department of Psychiatry at Dalhousie University says, “​Anytime we upload personal information into the so-called cloud, we invariably raise new questions about privacy and ethics. And when it comes to information about our health, and health care, the picture gets especially cloudy”. 

We’re all aware of how insecure wireless signals can be. Will these digital drugs come with password protection? Would you take a chance and allow your medical data to be transmitted wirelessly to your Smartphone and then to your doctor? Personally, I would but I don’t think I’d feel the same way if I had a condition that I didn’t want anyone knowing about. Wireless transmission is a risk and it’s a matter of how much risk you can bear. Regardless of the risks involved, I find these new medical breakthroughs very exciting!

There will come a time when it isn't 'They're spying on me through my phone' anymore. Eventually, it will be 'My phone is spying on me'.
Philip K. Dick

Make someone smile today.

Geri