Patent ID: 7414534

Claim:
A method for use in monitoring the ingestion of pills by a patient in which an implantable medical system is implanted, the method comprising: sensing a signal transmitted by an individual pill being ingested; detecting ingestion of the pill based on the sensed signal; wherein the individual pill is equipped with radio frequency identification (RFID) device and wherein sensing the signal transmitted by the pill comprises sensing an RFID signal transmitted by the RFID device of the pill; wherein the individual pill is equipped with a passive RFID device and wherein sensing signals comprises: transmitting a power signal to the passive RFID device of the pill; receiving a responsive signal returned by the passive RFID device of the pill; and wherein the implantable system is equipped to detect and classify patient movement and wherein transmitting a power signal to the passive RFID device is triggered by detection of patient motion that is consistent with the swallowing of a pill.