A scientist has called for the development of digestible batteries made of materials already found in the human body so that theoretical electronic pills can be made a reality.

Such pills, which would be able to detect problems in the digestive tract and release suitable medication accordingly, are possible to create, but at present cannot be achieved with a safe power source, according to Christopher Bettinger, assistant professor of materials science and biomedical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University.

Writing in the journal Trends in Biotechnology, Bettinger highlighted current digestible electronic devices – the forefathers to these electronic pills – which can be used to capture footage of the intestines or collect data about how the body is breaking down a drug.

However, these devices use regular batteries like the ones found in consumer electronics, and so pose a risk if they fail to pass through the digestive system.

“The primary risk is the intrinsic toxicity of these materials, for example, if the battery gets mechanically lodged in the gastrointestinal tract – but that’s a known risk. In fact, there is very little unknown risk in these kinds of devices,” he said.

“The breakfast you ate this morning is only in your GI tract for about 20 hours – all you need is a battery that can do its job for 20 hours and then, if anything happens, it can just degrade away.”

One solution that Bettinger has proposed is the development of electronics that are powered by electrolytes found in our own digestive tracts.

While this may sound bizarre, the technology has already been demonstrated in lab settings, with such electronics found to dissolve in water within three months.

There’s also considerable evidence that such devices could be approved by regulators such as the US’ FDA; a number of ingestible medical devices, including 3D printed pills, have successfully jumped through the regulatory hoops in recent years, so the FDA is certainly open to approving atypical devices.

Ultimately this type of pill could, according to Bettinger, prove to lower costs per patient – a welcome goal for any medical device in a time of ageing populations and rising care costs.

“There are many rapid advances in materials, inventions, and discoveries that can be brought to bear on medical problems,” he said.

“If we can engineer devices that get the most mileage out of existing drugs, then that is a very attractive value proposition. I believe these devices can be tested in patients within the next 5-10 years.”