HealthWatch (WFRV)     Have you ever forgotten to take your daily medications? Well, you're not alone.  Studies show about 50-percent of patients do not take their drugs as prescribed.  Now researchers are hoping to change that.

M-I-T's Dr. Michael Cima helped create the first pharmacy on a chip that is implanted under the skin. It can be programmed wirelessly to release medication from tiny reservoirs.

Osteoporosis patients, who have to inject themselves with bone growth drugs every day, were the first to test it. It is implanted just below the beltline underneath the skin.

A month long study showed the implant delivered the drug comparable to the patients' usual daily injection with no adverse side effects.

In another MIT lab post-doctoral candidate Carl Schoellhammer is testing high and low frequency ultrasound as a way to painlessly deliver drugs through the top layer of skin. You can see how the sound waves suspend the bubbles in this solution. (:09)

Schellhammer says it makes the skin permeable, so a patch of medication or even a vaccine could be applied and absorbed into the body without needles.

Two new technologies taking the hurt and hassle out of drug delivery.

The ultrasound drug delivery system is still in the prototype phase.

Doctor Cima says the microchip could help patients who need drugs for things like diabetes, cancer, and multiple sclerosis.