The first drug-delivering microchip has been developed to help battle the fact that 30% of the 9 million prescriptions filled every year are never administered by scientists at the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Vancouver. This chip, implanted under the skin, is said to help to combat problems patients face when taking medication, such as a fear of pain from needles, and taking the correct dosage at the correct time.
So far it has been suggested that it could be used to benefit cancer, heart disease and multiple sclerosis patients after already being tested on 7 female osteoporosis patients in place of injections of Teriparatide.
There those appear to be many benefits in the long term, such as increasing the likelihood that patients will complete a cycle of drugs for their ailment without interruption following symptomatic change, and particularly elderly patients and the mentally ill could have a decreased risk of self harm by possibly administering the wrong dosage too many or too few times a day.
However, the implantation of the chip has not been extensively described in the article, such as the likelihood of infection from the test cases already observed, how often the chip needs to be changed. Also, the possible anxiety a patient may experience at the idea of such a procedure in the short term must be considered; perhaps stopping them for following this course of drug treatment at all, rendering the benefits mute.
See:
Medicine is Alive Everywhere 