Drawing inspiration from science fiction, researchers have developed a controllable endoscopic capsule that patients can swallow like a pill and let doctors explore inside of their bodies.

Researchers at Brigham and Women`s Hospital (BWH) have successfully tested a prototype of the capsule that has the ability to `swim` through the body and could provide clinicians with unprecedented control when photographing the inside of the human body.

The capsule can be equipped with a camera.

Once inside the patient`s digestive track, a doctor can `steer` the capsule through the body using an MRI machine, photograph specific areas of interest, and view those pictures wirelessly.

`Our goal is to develop this capsule so that it could be used to deliver images in real time, and allow clinicians to make a diagnosis during a single procedure with little discomfort or risk to the patient,` said Noby Hata, a researcher in the Department of Radiology at BWH and leader of the development team for the endoscopic capsule.

`Ideally, in the future we would be able to utilize this technology deliver drugs or other treatments, such as laser surgery, directly to tumors or injuries within the digestive track,` Hata added.

BWH researchers Hata and his colleague, Peter Jakab, tested the capsule in an MRI machine and proved that it can be manipulated to `swim` through a tank of water.

The next step in their research is to successfully test the capsule inside a human body.

Source: ANI
Image: Flickr/creativecommons somegeekintn