a start-up is developing a capsule allowing you to observe the inside of the stomach and digestive system without using an endoscope

This pill is currently only used for inspection, but the device should make it possible, if clinical trials are conclusive, to easily diagnose ulcers, lesions or tumors.

Reality meets fiction. We can now swallow a robot pill that can make a diagnosis from the inside. This is the Pillbot from the start-up Endiatx. So far, it was only a prototype. But clinical tests on humans have just started in June. It looks like the scenario of the inner adventure or Fantastic trip. If you don’t remember, it’s the story of a group of doctors and a submarine that were miniaturized to treat a person from the inside.

We find exactly the same principle, namely a capsule that we swallow, which in fact is a miniature submarine with a propulsion system to remotely guide it, an HD camera to broadcast the video live, and lights to clearly illuminate everything he sees. This device will allow doctors to travel inside the stomach and digestive system. All this, without using an endoscope, good news for patients. We will no longer have this long pipe going into the throat. Suddenly, no more anesthesia, no more hospitalization. Just a pill to swallow.

In this first version, the pill will only be used for inspection, but this will already make it easy to diagnose ulcers, lesions or tumors. To detect, for example, colon cancer (the second most deadly cancer after lung cancer). Today, many delay their diagnosis because colonoscopy makes them uncomfortable. With a simple pill to swallow, it will be much easier. We could even do it quietly at home.

Other pill robots are also in the works. Particularly with instruments that will make it possible to take biopsies, cauterize lesions or remove tumors. Here again, always remotely, with a simple pill remotely controlled by the doctor. The ultimate goal is to create even smaller robots. We could then inject them into a vein to carry out operations, anywhere in the body, without having to cut ourselves open. This is the credo of current medical research: to develop the least invasive treatments possible.