HP Skin Patch May Replace Needles

Iddo Genuth writes "HP and Crospon have developed a skin patch employing microneedles that barely penetrate the skin. The microneedles can replace conventional injections and deliver drugs through the skin without causing any pain. The skin patch technology also enables delivery of several drugs by one patch and the control of dosage and of administration time for each drug. It has the potential to be safer and more efficient than injections."

Well...

[F-3582]

I'd like to see someone draw blood through one of those... Should get you the clearest serum ever.

Now we need sensors in those patches

[Thanshin]

If this technology triumphs, the next addition should be sensors that control the release of chemicals taking the current situation into consideration.

For example, a patch could sense the cardiac rhythm and control it chemically. Another could control blood sugar, etc.

What I imagine is someone witnessing a car accident, taking four patches from his car's medikit putting them in different parts of the hurt person and calling an ambulance while the patches stabilize the patient.

Re:Now we need sensors in those patches

[Thanshin]

Ok, we need sensors in the patches and a better legal system that doesn't bind the minds and souls of men with ropes of fear.

Types of injection

[Wilson_6500]

So this is great for stuff that you can put in subcutaneously. What about intravenous injections? What about intramuscular? Intraperitoneal? What about substances that are made up of large (several micron) particles, such as the sufur colloid injections used by nuclear medicine studies? Those could get stuck in superfine-gauge needles.

I think it's a little premature to say that this patch will replace conventional injections entirely. It might seem obvious that a patch couldn't really hope to deliver injections into the muscles without penetrating all the layers of skin, but I think it at least bears mentioning.

Re:Pain?

[Anonymous Coward]

It is estimated that about 10% of people (including me) have a phobia of needles (trypanophobia). For many people, this phobia is associated with a sudden drop in blood pressure, causing fainting and such, at the time of injection. I know that I am perfectly capable of being fairly calm before getting a shot, and generally don't feel terribly afraid, but will still end up nauseous and probably faint afterwards. So I'm interested in this not so much for the pain reduction, but because this probably wouldn't cause that reaction for me. I'd love not to have to worry about fainting after getting an injection.

Re:Consider the potential abuses

[Anonymous Coward]

One of the largest addiction factors is the "come up" when heroin is injected. Sex really does pale to the opiate rush of IVed heroin. Yeah, the dreams are vivid, but no more than oxycodone.

Posted AC so google doesn't come back to haunt me one day.

Re:Consider the potential abuses

[Opportunist]

We're talking a printer manufacturer here. I bet those things have some kind of chip inside that makes dead sure you can't refill them.

Re:Consider the potential abuses

[Anonymous Coward]

All(?) of the opioids (heroin, oxycodone, etc.), benzodiazepans (valium, klonopin, ambien), barbiturates, and alcohol all cause attenuation over time (less effect for same amount of drug), physical withdrawal symptoms when discontinued (a majority of them can be lethal if withdrawn too quickly from a high usage scenario), and overdoses can be lethal. Nasty stuff.

You would never inject heroin (or meth, coke etc.) in anything but a vein, though, because it would feel like someone stabbed you with a red-hot-poker, and it would take ages to get a high.

With meth (the only one I have personal experience with), you'll occasionally have users getting high midway through an injection, losing control over the needle and pushing some of the drug into the surrounding tissue -- this is never intentional though.

Meth doesn't have the withdrawal issues of e.g. heroin (and I don't believe it's possible to lethally OD on it based on available literature), but it destroys your life in so many other ways. The last time I looked, the recidivism rate was 94% for people who wanted to quit. Skip this one if you haven't tried it. (If you're using, you won't listen to me anyways, besides you've got this thing under control, right? ;-)

M.L.
(clean since Jan 1, 2006)

Re:In speculative fiction for a while

[jotok]

It takes some people a while to separate "risk management" and "fault" or "blame." I can't pin down why, though I have some ideas.

I think the issue has to do with separating morally important acts with moral content from morally unimportant acts: rape has moral content, wearing this clothing or walking down that street does not.

Here's an example using street gangs: they wear different colors to identify themselves. So if you wear a red sweatshirt and the blue shirt gang shoots you, they did an immoral act, whereas your act cannot be construed as "immoral" and therefore you can't be blamed for your own shooting.

If you're going to allow such morally unimportant and therefore arbitrary factors when assigning blame, then you get a slippery slope where things that are not only unimportant but also beyond a person's control are used...such as your gender. So we find people saying, essentially, the man who raped the woman was not guilty--it was the woman's fault for A) being female and B) being around men, who cannot be expected to control themselves.

The obvious remedy is not for the law to enforce women's rights, nor for women to exercise their right as human beings to defend themselves, but rather to blame the women.

If this kind of reasoning makes sense to you, then you might be a Saudi judge.

Now, it is perfectly reasonable to advise people on risky behaviors: watch what you wear to reduce your chances of getting shot. Don't go get so drunk you can't stand up when you're all alone. Don't hold hands walking down Crime Alley in Gotham City. And so forth. But "being vulnerable" is still not an immoral act.

Some people do think it is, but they only want to justify their position of strength--alas, power doesn't justify itself, though powerful people wish it did.