Digital Pills (DP) are an innovative drug-device technology that permits to combine traditional medications with a monitoring system to record data about medication adherence as well as patients’ physiological data without human intervention. The Digital Medicine System (DMS), a drug–device combination developed for patients with serious mental illness, together combines adherence measurement with pharmacologic action by placing an ingestible sensor in a pill, allowing for information sharing among patients, Health Care Providers (HCPs), and caregivers via a mobile interface. Non-adherence to medication compromises the helpfulness of psychiatric treatments in patients with Serious Mental Illness (SMI). The combination of wearable technology with a “Digital Ingestion Tracking Program” (DITP) embedded within a pain pill may allow patients, caregivers as well as healthcare providers to track ingestion of pills through the web or a Smartphone app. Digital adherence technology could be promising patient-centered strategies for monitoring adherence. In November 2017, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a version of a second-generation antipsychotic, aripiprazole; embedded with a sensor (Abilify MyCite). The paper highlights the impact of DMS and provides detailed review about it.

The Digital Medicine System (DMS) is an innovative drug–device combination developed for patients with serious mental illness. This integrates adherence measurement capabilities as part of the drug formulation via an embedded ingestible sensor. Serious Mental Illness (SMI) is one of the leading causes of longterm disability worldwide. Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder were ranked second, 11th, and 17th, respectively, on the list of global causes of long-term disability surveyed in 188 countries by the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013. SMI affects a large proportion of the US population; in 2012, the estimated prevalence of mental illness and SMI among adults was 18.5% and 4.2%, respectively, based on the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Pharmacologic treatment interventions reduce the severity of SMI and improve patient outcomes.