Look Who it Was Random video

Pill Cams Ready for Your Close Up

463 views · Published 11 October 2015 · 1:39 · Indexed 24 October 2026

Channel: Lee Health · 2015 · Science & Technology

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So-called smart pills are going places doctors could hardly access. Bringing into focus your gastrointestinal tract like never before.

“Every two seconds this camera will flash and take a picture, will flash and take a picture. So you swallow it and as it’s going through the small bowel it’s flashing and taking photographs during the entire time,” says Dr. Michael Bays, a gastroenterologist on medical staff of Lee Memorial Health System. 

About the size of a dime, a PillCam snaps an average of 57,000 pictures on its journey through the body; ideal for tight spaces like the small intestine.

“In between the stomach and the colon is about fifteen feet of bowel and so there’s lots of stuff that can go on in that part of the intestine that we can’t see with our endoscopes. Prior to this, we had one of two options really. One is some sort of an x-ray and/or a barium enema,” says Dr. Bays. 

For more than a decade, doctors have used PillCams to troubleshoot issues in the small bowel; including ulcers, tumors and Crohn’s disease. Based on its convenience and the detailed images it provides, these vitamin-sized capsules have been fine-tuned to accommodate more uses, including colonoscopy. 

“They’re actually now coming out with a dual camera. The newer equipment has two cameras instead of one for evaluating the colon,” says Dr. Bays. 

They are all forms of capsule endoscopy. One is also approved for use in the esophagus. 

“You can see the esophagus real well because of the diameter,” says Dr. Bays. 

Images are sent to an external data recorder then downloaded for evaluation. The pill is simply flushed away once it has run its course. In the process, the tiny PillCam is changing the way we view ourselves.

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Lee Memorial Health System in Fort Myers, FL is the largest network of medical care facilities in Southwest Florida and is highly respected for its expertise, innovation and quality of care. For nearly a century, we’ve been providing our community with everything from primary care treatment to highly specialized care services and robotic assisted surgeries.

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