Re-design of the conventional needle
Christopher Holden, a student of Northumbria University, UK, studying Design for industry, has re-designed the conventional needle. His design, called 'MediDome', is intended to eliminate needle stick injuries, cross contamination of blood-borne viruses such as HIV and hepatitis and the fear of needles. The design of MediDome ensures that veins would not be ruptured during intramuscular or subcutaneous injection. A soft flexible plastic is used in manufacturing MediDome, pre-filled with a measured drug dose that avoids the need for priming.
In the use of MediDome, a sterile cover is removed to expose to anaesthetic antiseptic adhesive that sticks to the skin of the patient before the needle is injected. It is designed to be of single use so that viruses such as HIV and blood born diseases are not spread. The peel-off adhesive cover changes its color if the product has been ruptured or messed with which acts as a tamper alarm.
The MediDome is in the shape of a dome and has a ring around it. The device uses a universal colour coding drug system-the ring colour is determined by the drug in the pre-filled reservoir, and has a large label containing all required information like the name of the drug and the dosage etc. which ensure easy use and minimised human errors.
