Proteus Biomedical is a company that makes “existing products intelligent” by adding “ingestable and implantable technologies“, i.e. by adding MEMS, chips and sensors, to pills so you can monitor the intake of medicine through your mobile phone. Via Wired Blog Network: Ingestible Electronics Monitor Drugs in Your Body.

MEMS are tiny mechanical objects that are fabricated in the same general manner as integrated circuits. They can be as small as a grain of sand, and generally range from 100 nanometers to 100 micrometers in size. Because MEMS devices are manufactured using batch fabrication techniques similar to those used for integrated circuits, unprecedented levels of functionality, reliability, and sophistication can be placed on a small silicon chip at a relatively low cost. New applications of MEMS technology are revolutionizing the development of intelligent products, augmenting the computational ability of microelectronics with the perception and control capabilities of microsensors with virtually limitless potential designs and applications. (Proteus Biomedical)

Proteus’ product consists of two parts: an ingestible sensor chip and an external band-aid-like patch. The chips are just 1mm square and 200 microns thick and are attached to pills with a bio-compatible glue. When swallowed the chips send a signal to the patch. The patch has accelerometers and amplifiers to track heart rate, respiratory rate, temperature and body angle to determine if the patient is lying down or standing up.That information is transmitted via Bluetooth to an online repository and can show how the body is responding to the drug, says Savage. (Wired)

Here is a video introducing intelligent medicine.