Patients should find the PillCam easy to stomach
GOING for a hospital test can be a daunting experience. But now NHS patients in Scotland are benefiting from a futuristic new screening method – a tiny camera inside a pill that scans the body while they get on with their daily lives.
The state-of-the-art ‘PillCam’ is being used to screen patients in place of an invasive colonoscopy procedure.
Once it has been swallowed, the PillCam takes 400,000 images of the gut, which will show up abnormalities – such as cancer or inflammatory bowel disease – which are normally diagnosed via invasive tests carried out at hospital appointments.
The camera is swallowed in the same way as a tablet, and takes the same journey through the gut as food.
The PillCam is being used on patients in Ullapool, Ross-shire, and on the Isle of Skye. It means they no longer have to make long journeys to Raigmore Hospital, in Inverness. It will also be used in Wick, Caithness, and Stornoway, on the Isle of Lewis. GPs have been trained to give advice on taking it and on how to upload the images.
The PillCam was introduced to the NHS in Scotland a few months ago and although it is currently only available in NHS Highland, the state-of-the art technology is a prime example of ‘telehealth’ that is being pushed forward by the Scottish Government.
Its National Action Plan for Technology Enabled Care, published last year, set out plans to support more ‘personalised care’ at home, using new developments to avoid hospital appointments – such as home blood pressure monitoring.
The PillCam can help diagnose conditions in the bowel or colon such as cancer, polyps, Crohn’s disease and colitis. Traditional colonoscopies sometimes require patients to be sedated and the hospital appointments can mean taking a day off work.
The device is seen as being of particular benefit to patients in rural areas. And it could even help cut NHS waiting times.
Professor Angus Watson, consultant colorectal surgeon for NHS Highland, said it would allow some patients to undergo colon capsule endoscopies. He said: ‘At the moment, if patients are referred by their GPs with symptoms, such as pain, bleeding or weight loss, patients are given a colonoscopy which has to be done in hospital and is uncomfortable.
‘But the latest technology is a camera in a pill. This involves swallowing a pill the size of a large vitamin tablet, which takes six to eight hours to pass through the body.’
The battery-operated device has a camera and a flashing light.
The camera takes 400,000 pictures at a rate of 35 a minute and sends the images to a device on the belt the patient wears.
Staff then look at them to determine whether there are any health problems.
Professor Watson added: ‘It is painless. And when they pass it out, it is safe to go into the sewage system because it dissolves. They hand over the belt kit which stores the images, these are then looked at and a report is produced a few days later.
‘For some patients this will be the definitive test, others will need further investigations, like a colonoscopy, if they need biopsies from the lining of the bowel.’
Research shows the PillCam is as effective at picking up significant bowel problems as colonoscopies. At £650, including the costs of interpreting the data, it is more expensive than a £400 colonoscopy, but that procedure comes with extra expense, such as the decontamination of equipment, while the PillCam is disposable.
Professor Watson believes the PillCam provides more equality of access to NHS services for those in remote areas and says it could cut waiting times.
Thousands of colonoscopies are carried out each year but currently just 64 per cent of Scottish patients are seen within the six-week waiting-time standard set by the NHS.
‘There is a place for this in the NHS,’ Professor Watson said. ‘I think it will find its place as a firstline investigation in patients with less suspicious symptoms.’
‘I think this is going to be a winner on waiting time.’
The development has been welcomed by patients’ groups.
Elaine Steven of the charity Crohn’s and Colitis UK said: ‘This treatment option could have a dramatic impact on the quality of life for many. There are many benefits to these capsule endoscopies – such as it being non-invasive, less painful, and it doesn’t require sedation.’
She added: ‘We welcome the news that the NHS in Scotland will be able to offer this method of diagnosing and monitoring patients.’