Swallowable Capsule-Camera Instead of Endoscopy: Now in Patients medscape.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from medscape.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Pill Cam
In what sounds like something straight out of a sci-fi film, some NHS patients will soon be able to swallow a pill with a tiny camera inside to get checked for cancer and other conditions like Crohn’s disease.
‘Pill Cams’ are being trialled across the NHS, with an initial group of 11,000 patients in England receiving the capsule cameras in more than 40 parts of the country.
Known as a colon capsule endoscopy, the cameras will enable patients to access cancer checks at home. The imaging technology can provide information and photos within a matter of hours.
Traditionally with endoscopies, patients need to attend hospital and have a tube inserted, often through their mouth. In the pandemic, however, infection control measures required to make endoscopies ‘Covid secure’ mean they take much longer to do, which has reduced the number of people undergoing checks.
| UPDATED: 08:13, Thu, Mar 11, 2021
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The small camera, know as colon capsule endoscopy, is a pill taken by patient which can take photographs inside the human body. It can help doctors diagnose a tumour within just five hours without the invasive nature of traditional colonoscopies.
The cancer cam devices - known as a colon capsule endoscopy - which can give results within just five hours, are initially being sent to 11,000 NHS patients across Britain for a trial.