Space-Age Medical Technology Puts Camera in a Pill.

Byline: Paul Jacobs

Dec. 31--The young woman was losing blood so fast she was hospitalized three times in six weeks.

Her doctors suspected a tumor or ulcer somewhere along the 22 feet or so of small intestine.

But before taking the next logical step -- a surgical examination of her intestines -- they turned to Dr. Jacques Van Dam, chief of gastroenterology at Stanford University, one of the first physicians in the area trained to use a remarkable new device called the M2A Capsule.

At one inch long and a third of an inch across -- not much bigger than a jumbo-sized multivitamin -- it's small enough to be swallowed. But unlike other pills, this one from the publicly …