PSFK has an article by Kristen Nozell about it:
The FDA has recently approved a product that should improve the less-than-pleasant traditional colonoscopy experience. Reminiscent of a certain Magic School Bus story, the PillCam is a pill-sized camera that snaps images of the patient’s insides as it winds its way through the intestinal track. Developed by Israeli medical solutions company Given Imaging, the product has been approved to supplement traditional colonoscopies when an incomplete test is run due to patient discomfort. For those patients, the pill camera will provide an alternative non-invasive method for scanning the lower intestines.Rico, of course, had to ask why they didn't use it in his case, and got the standard irritating answer: the insurance companies won't pay for it. (Don't get Rico started on insurance companies; they inspire visions of masses of patients with torches and pitchforks...)
The indigestible gadget travels slowly through the body over approximately eight hours, transmitting images wirelessly to a device worn on the patient’s waist for the doctor to later review and screen for precancerous masses. While currently positioned as a supplement to the standard colonoscopy procedure rather than a direct substitute, as the technology and quality of the images improves it could become more widely used. The tool has previously been approved in eighty other countries.
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