Hyposprays

[voyagerfan]

I was recently looking at a journal and low and behold it had a journal article on administration of drugs through the skin and a method which the hyposprays were used in it.

International Journal of Pharmaceutics 364 (2008) 227-236

Review - Microscale devices for transdermal drug delivery

Science is catching up with star trek.

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/picrender.fcgi?artid=1838589&blobtype=pdf

That should link to a live paper, and it shows how the hypo/hyperspray would work.

 

[Timo]

In what fashion is this "news"? I mean, transdermal drug delivery was old in the 1960s already, even if it wasn't usually done with pen-sized delivery devices. Equipment resembling paint guns (not paintball markers!) or pressure cleaners facilitated rapid vaccinations in military health inspections and the like. The result was a nasty subdermal bruise, though.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Green Shirt]

In what fashion is this "news"? I mean, transdermal drug delivery was old in the 1960s already, even if it wasn't usually done with pen-sized delivery devices. Equipment resembling paint guns (not paintball markers!) or pressure cleaners facilitated rapid vaccinations in military health inspections and the like. The result was a nasty subdermal bruise, though.

Timo Saloniemi

Yeah, I remember getting measles shots in school in the late 60s with a gun-like device. I had blood dripping down my arm by the time I got back to class.

 

[voyagerfan]

They are now starting to be considered seriously and would more closely resemble those used in the series?

I thought it would be interesting to have a look at the mechanism, obviously I was wrong.

 

[Timo]

Oh, don't get me wrong, the mechanism is interesting enough. It's just that I don't think it really represents a quantum leap or anything, or that hyposprays ever went away after first being introduced. We still had those pressure hoses in the military in the early nineties...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Jefferies]

^^Well the Star Trek type jet injector is not suddenly going to pop into existence trough a miraculous discovery. Most likely, it will be by little steps like most advances in medicine and medical technology. Being dismissive of small scale research like this comes across as a bit short-sighted.

 

[Timo]

I'm instead dismissive of the tendency of people to suggest that steps like this are important leaps forward, or proof that Trek is finally here, or at least on our doorstep. Cell phones shaped like Kirk's communicator were no more a leap forward than this device is. They are, as said, incremental and in many ways cosmetic changes towards an ultimate goal that may not have anything to do with the 1960s props after all.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Jefferies]

Its more then a visual design change. They found a way to significantly reduce pain in jet injection. Now, how great a discovery that is is probably more a subjective thing. But, I know a few diabetic kids who would be thrilled about this!