Ingestible Thermometer Pill Aids Athletes in Beating the Heat

About this technology

Overview

In order to monitor the body temperature of astronauts during space flight, NASA teamed up with Johns Hopkins University in the late 1980s to develop an ingestible thermometer pill" called the Ingestible Thermal Monitoring System. Incorporating a number of space technologies including wireless telemetry (wireless signal transmission) microminiaturized circuitry sensors and batteries the thermometer pill became commercially available in research university and military markets in 1988 (Spinoff 1994). Due to a heightened awareness of heatstroke risk among athletes brought on by the deaths of a professional football player and a college football player just a week apart in 2001 the product is now well received as a means to detect elevated core body temperature during sporting activities. In the NFL the Jacksonville Jaguars Philadelphia Eagles and Minnesota Vikings are using the CorTemp technology to monitor their players. Beyond the sporting world the ingestible capsules have been used to monitor the core body temperatures of firefighters as they battle blazes and divers as they work in deep cold waters. Applications are expanding for HQ Inc. the manufacturer of the commercial temperature pill."