Recent word from the MIT News Office is that MIT researchers have engineered a device that delivers a tiny, high-pressure jet of medicine through the skin without the use of a hypodermic needle. According to the abstract in the journal of Medical Engineering & Physics,the MIT team previews the functionality of this latest scientific marvel:

“Needle-free drug delivery by jet injection is achieved by ejecting a liquid drug through a narrow orifice at high pressure, thereby creating a fine high-speed fluid jet that can readily penetrate skin and tissue. Until very recently, all jet injectors utilized force- and pressure-generating principles that progress injection in an uncontrolled manner with limited ability to regulate delivery volume and injection depth. In order to address these shortcomings, we have developed a controllable jet injection device, based on a custom high-stroke linear Lorentz-force motor that is feed-back controlled during the time-course of an injection.”

In other words, future injections may become less painful, more controllable, and ultimately less traumatic for those who fear needles, myself included. I fainted when I first bore witness to an injection at the age of 10, and the sight of needles still makes me dizzy today. This news, therefore, is music to my ears. Additionally, not only does the introduction of this device provide a preferred alternative to those with phobias about needles, but the regulation and control of drugs that will be delivered during the injection process may also reduce the risks of needle mishaps such as accidental pricking. Through these advantages alone, we begin to witness a piece of technology that may change the face of drug and medicine administration throughout the world.

What about the amount of pressure that will be ejected in order to breach the skin? Through testing, the group discovered that various skin types might require different waveforms to deliver adequate volumes of drugs to the desired depth. Catherine Hogan, a research scientist in MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering and a member of the research team states, “If I’m breaching a baby’s skin to deliver vaccine, I won’t need as much pressure as I would need to breach my skin…We can tailor the pressure profile to be able to do that, and that’s the beauty of this device.” Clearly, this device provides many positive promises. Nevertheless, Hogan also notes the drawbacks to these devices. The mechanisms they use, particularly in spring-loaded designs, are essentially “bang or nothing,” releasing a coil that ejects the same amount of drug to the same depth every time. There are also constant questions of financial needs, accessibility, and other effects of the released current when it interacts with human skin.

After many attempts over the past few decades to implement alternatives to hypodermic needles such as nicotine patches – which were only able to pass through the skin’s pores – only time and further advancement will tell if the world is ready to completely replace syringes with this emerging technology.

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