By turning them into paranoid realities.
From Forbes:
FDA Approves First Digital Pill That You (And Others) Can Track
"Did you take that pill?'
Response: "Yes."
"Are you sure?"
Response: "Absolutely. I'm fairly certain. I think so. Maybe. What was your question again?"
"Let's ask the pill."
Today the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that they approved the first drug in the U.S. that can tell you and others that you swallowed it. Abilify MyCite are aripiprazole tablets with sensors embedded in them. Once the pill goes down your hatch, the sensor can then send a message to a patch that you wear, essentially saying that "the pill has landed. Houston, we've reached the stomach." The wearable patch can then transmit this information to an app on your smart phone.
From the smartphone, this information can go anywhere via the Interwebs, to, for instance, your family members or your doctors, granted that you give them permission to see this information. Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. makes the drug and Proteus Digital Health makes the sensor technology Abilify MyCite. And you thought a talking tablet was just Siri on an iPad.
While Abilify is a very specific medication, approved by the FDA in 2002 for the treatment of schizophrenia, approval of such a pill-technology combo opens up a whole new avenue of possibilities for many other types of treatments. As Marie T. Brown, MD from Rush University Medical Center and Jennifer K. Bussell, MD, from the University of Chicago described for the Mayo Clinic Proceedings, around half of patients fail to take their medications as prescribed, and there are many reasons why they don't. Some may not understand the directions. Others don't like the side effects. And others just forget or lose track. Remembering to take medications has become more and more challenging as more Americans are taking more pills. A study published in JAMA in 2015 found that from 1999–2000 to 2011–2012, the percentage of adults taking 5 or more prescription drugs rose from an estimated 8.2% to an estimated 15%. With so many pills, remembering to take the right pill at the right time can be quite a pill....MORE
