Are the needle's days numbered?

[dArKeR]

Needles are something of a sore point for many people. From phobias to infections, accidents and misuse, they deliver many health negatives as well as positives. Yet, with an estimated 12 billion needles entering our arms, bums and thighs each year worldwide, injections are one of the most frequently used medical procedures.

Last week, the results of trials into insulin inhalers replacing injections for diabetes were presented at a conference organized by Diabetes UK, emphasising the desire for alternative modes of drug delivery. But for decades, needle-free injection devices have been developed for the mainstream market without ever being introduced.

The latest was devised by a team of undergraduate bioengineering students at the University of California, Berkeley. Their MicroJet injector uses an electronic actuator instead of a needle to propel drugs through the surface of the skin, in a similar way to an inkjet printer.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/edit/archives/2005/05/01/2003252716

[NV Whino]

1. Dr. McCoy had it right all along

Star Trek, here we come. Is "beam me up" next?

[freethought]

2. "It's worse than that, he's dead Jim!"

Quite bluntly, they are working on 'beam me up'. I believe it has only been done on a subatomic level. I can't remember the specifics and acutally turning large amounts of matter may be centuries away. None the less, someone somewhere is working on it. The wonder of it all!!

[NV Whino]

3. Given the fact that nothing is "solid"

as we (think) we know it. I can see no reason that eventually we can't beam up or beam somehwere else.

Of course, another alternative is The Fly. Oh well, win some, lose some.

[politicat]

7. Right now we're limited by our computational abilities.

Our best computers are wimpy.

We need a breakthrough in computational ability to have a breakthrough in matter transition. (The article on the atomic level transition of particles said that it took something on the order of 10,000 desktop machines.)

[htuttle]

4. Needles will be obsolete like stone tools are obsolete

You don't think people still use stone tools? Say you're out camping, and you need to pound in a tent stake, yet have no hammer. What do you use? You pick up a rock...

My point is that availability of technology is as or more important that innovation by itself. How much does the device cost, and where can you get it? And it needs batteries? There are a LOT of people in the world who need shots, and I doubt most of them will be seen by medical personnel who can afford wiz-bang injector devices. Most of them won't be seen by medical personnel at all.

I don't mean to start an argument about it, but I hate to see appropriate technology being replaced by expensive technology for an incremental benefit. Needles have a lot of drawbacks, but they are damned efficient -- both to make and to use.

Just seems like we're always spending ten times as much to allow a small percentage of us to live a tiny bit better at the expense of the rest of us.

This post really has nothing to do with needles and MicroJet Injectors, I guess. </apparent luddite rant off>

[northzax]

5. well sure, but what are the other risks from needles

contamination, cost of disposal, disease transfers (esp to heath care workers) getting rid of them might save a lot of money. we shall see.

[trotsky]

6. Good points.

"Hypo-sprays" = no bodily fluid exposure. Needles will still have their place, no doubt (we'll still have to DRAW blood and hook up IVs) but this could end up being very helpful in the long run.

[amandae]

8. My mom is diabetic, adult onset

Dr. related it to how much stress she has had over her lifetime. She developed Type I diabetes in her 30's and it's now bad enough that she is one of those diabetics who wears an insulin pump. She has had to poke herself with needles so often in the last 15 years that she has developed scar tissue in common injection sites. This isn't a good thing, especially in the area where her pump needle has to be inserted (her belly). When she inserts the needle into an area that has some scar tissue (sometimes she just doesn't have an accurate gage as to how much scar tissue *might* be there) she will have high sugars, her insulin won't absorb properly and it has led to her being in the hospital.

For my mother, and other insulin dependent diabetics, needleless procedures to obtain medications would be a definite blessing. I feel it would definately be worth the investment to possibly not have to see my mom in ICU again, because of this problem, for a long time.