Israel’s PillCam revolutionized GI imaging, and now others are following that success with other non invasive solutions that journey through the body.
Every list of the greatest Israeli inventions includes PillCam.
PillCam is a video camera swallowed like a vitamin pill. It travels through the gastrointestinal tract, sending clear images to the physician on its way out of the body.
Invented by an Israeli electro-optical engineer and his neighbor, a gastroenterologist, the camera-in-a-pill endoscopy device signaled a worldwide diagnostic revolution. Capsule endoscopy has been FDA-approved and in use since 2001.
Given Imaging, the Israeli company that commercialized the PillCam, was acquired in 2013 by Irish company Covidien. Following Covidien’s acquisition by US-based Medtronic, the PillCam platform has been further developed through the Covidien Minimally Invasive Therapies Division of Medtronic.
The PillCam capsule endoscopy platform now enables physicians to detect GI abnormalities, monitor disease (such as Crohn’s) and assess treatment efficacy for conditions in the esophagus, stomach, small bowel and colon (large intestine).