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Posted by: Beth Snyder on: 05/21/2015 08:15 PM
Something like 20% of Americans have needle phobia (I admit it, I'm one of them), so they avoid getting injections unless they absolutely have to. This can lead to their illness and also the spread of disease, since a great number of vaccines as well as blood tests require a poke. While it's understandable to want to avoid the pain, it's really not a good idea. For me, it's been impossible to avoid needles due to several different medical misadventures over the last few years.
Comfortably Numb, which is what Greg Allison, Andy Zhang and Mike Hua (students at Rice University) decided to name their device, as you might guess from its name numbs the site of an injection to the point where the pain of getting stuck with a needle is at least considerably reduced if not eliminated entirely. How it does this is by combining a small amount of water and aluminum nitrate (the same components found in a commercial ice pack). When the canister is twisted, the seal between the two breaks and they quickly become cold, which in turn chills the metal plate at the bottom of Comfortably Numb.
The best part is that no chemicals ever touch the body, which means it doesn't have to pass some of the more stringent FDA regulations. Also, since it's 3D printed, it's completely disposable and easily replaced. Because this was a class project, it hasn't undergone anything remotely resembling real lab testing, but what they've done so far is certainly promising. Once they overcome a few hurdles (cost being a big one), it wouldn't surprise me to see Comfortably Numb or a close facsimile being used in doctors' offices regularly. And the part of me that is a huge baby who can't even watch when I'm being stuck for whatever reason is really, really happy about that.
Check out the video to see Comfortably Numb in action. It's really pretty neat!
Source: Fast Company
Comfortably Numb, which is what Greg Allison, Andy Zhang and Mike Hua (students at Rice University) decided to name their device, as you might guess from its name numbs the site of an injection to the point where the pain of getting stuck with a needle is at least considerably reduced if not eliminated entirely. How it does this is by combining a small amount of water and aluminum nitrate (the same components found in a commercial ice pack). When the canister is twisted, the seal between the two breaks and they quickly become cold, which in turn chills the metal plate at the bottom of Comfortably Numb.
The best part is that no chemicals ever touch the body, which means it doesn't have to pass some of the more stringent FDA regulations. Also, since it's 3D printed, it's completely disposable and easily replaced. Because this was a class project, it hasn't undergone anything remotely resembling real lab testing, but what they've done so far is certainly promising. Once they overcome a few hurdles (cost being a big one), it wouldn't surprise me to see Comfortably Numb or a close facsimile being used in doctors' offices regularly. And the part of me that is a huge baby who can't even watch when I'm being stuck for whatever reason is really, really happy about that.
Check out the video to see Comfortably Numb in action. It's really pretty neat!
Source: Fast Company
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