Needle Free Injections With Microjets

IZ Reloaded writes "Do you hate needles? In the near future, the fear of needles would be a thing of a past. Bioengineering students at the University of California, Berkeley have developed the MicroJet. It uses an electronic actuator that could one day propel vaccinations, insulin or other drugs through the skin of the patient - without the device even touching the skin - with far less pain than a hypodermic needle."

Re:AIDS

[rastakid]

What happens when some crazy guy with AIDS starts shooting his blood at people and infecting them?

Good point. I really hope there needs be some proximity while 'injecting'. In that case it wouldn't really be different from an HIV patient attacking you with a needle.

worst article eh-ver!

[binarybum]

hopefully someone will link or replace this article link - it's awful!

"The researchers even joke that the MicroJet injector could be used to make getting tattoos much more bearable."

heh heh heh.... wait.. that's not a funny joke at all.

and the article fails to address the issue that this technology could become so painless that you do not even realize that you are receiving drugs. This becomes very scary.

Re:yeah, but will it hit my vein?

[Ayaress]

It'll probably only work with injections that go into tissue instead of veins. Accuraccy doesn't matter as much with them, so close enough out to be fine. Also, didn't they already do this some years back? I remember seeing pictures of devices that looked uncomfortably like a pneumatic nail gun that could inject medicine through the skin with pressurized air. Is this just a less sinister-looking version, or did the old one have a habit of giving people embolisms or something?

Re:The first?

[BobSutan]

I'm right there with you. I had about a half dozen "shots" with that thing in one day. Pain-free is not something we associated with it. And that's not counting the folks who were cut because either they or the tech's hand were moving when they did the injection. IIRC a couple of people ended up with stiches.

Re:Celebrities use...

[Anonymous Coward]

>>i think hes talking about the pain killer not ache cream.
> I know, oxycotton. I was kidding.

Spelling rarely rises to such levels of hilarity as it does on Slashdot.

Re:Obligatory Star Trek reference...

[Jicksta]

If there's anything time has told...

... it's don't doubt Star Trek :)

Re:Its not the needle

[Max Threshold]

Right... until the first time you encounter another idiot handling one of these things. In the hands of an unskilled operator, they don't just prick you, they SLICE YOU OPEN. I've seen it happen.

Taking Blood

[ZeroExistenZ]

I never minded a needle being popped in emptied and being subtracted. As mentioned here it seems a good thing to eliminate the need of needles for that. But as the "recipient" it doesn't make much of a difference it seems.

Now, when they bypass the need sticking a needle in one's vein to tap off blood for analys I'll be cheering! That is just so uncomfortable.

Re:Jetgun

[Karma Farmer]

Yes. That's ok in the military, where the jet gun is part of the indoctrination into doing exactly as you're told, without question, or you will be in a world of hurt.

But out in the real world, if you tell someone "if you even flinch, you will need stiches" and people will not accept it.

Re:Insulin jet injectors are NOT NEW

[Maint_Pgmr_3]

So, they have figured out how to inject and miss ALL nerve ending???? When they do that, then you will have a painless injector.

disclaimer: wife is type II with MediJect

wb

Re:worst article eh-ver!

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't worry, you can always get a nice big branding to prove your testicles are bigger than those damn middle-class white kids.