The winners of The Wall Street Journal’s 2004 Technology Innovation Awards competition have been announced. The silver award in overall Technology Innovation competition was given to Given Imaging Ltd of Yoqneam, Israel for the PillCam, a tiny camera that patients swallow so that doctors can see their digestive tract.
Given Imaging website describes the system:
The Given Diagnostic System consists of the:
* PillCam ™ Capsule, a patented, single-use video color-imaging capsule, which is ingested, glides naturally through the digestive tract and is naturally excreted.
* Given DataRecorder, worn on a belt around the waist that receives signals transmitted by the capsule through an array of sensors placed on the patient’s body. While wearing the belt, patients are free to continue their daily activities during the GI examination. During a typical eight-hour test, the M2A capsule transmits approximately 50,000 images to the portable data recorder.
* RAPID ™ Workstation, equipped with Given Imaging’s proprietary RAPID (Reporting and Processing of Images and Data) Application Software that processes the data and produces a video of the small intestine images. The RAPID Workstation permits physicians to view, edit, archive and e-mail the video, and save individual images and short video clips. Recent advances enable the physician to localize images, detect suspected locations of bleeding, and more efficiently view and archive the RAPID videos.
Real pictures and videos obtained by the PillCam are available here. Click on PillCam image above to see the enlarged, detailed photograph of capsules.