I believe that all readers and friends in front of the screen have experienced vaccination. Even if the pain is weak, when the doctor starts to lift the needle, some of my friends will have an uncontrollable fear of the needle.
The fear of intramuscular injections in children who are afraid of pain and easy to cry may not only affect the ongoing operation, but may also leave unhealthy malignant stimuli in the children's heart and affect their subsequent psychological development.
In view of this, the Canadian startup Cobionix has developed a new robot Cobi, hoping to simplify the vaccination process and realize autonomous, needle-free vaccination.
This will not only free the physician from the cumbersome work intensity of vaccination, but also give the vaccination patient a better painless experience.
Introduction to Cobi
Cobi is an intelligent robot that is completely autonomous and does not need to be operated by doctors or nurses.
Vaccination personnel patients register online in advance, and then arrive at the designated clinic or other locations that meet the requirements, and show their ID to the camera on the touch screen interface of the Cobi robot to confirm their identity.
After confirming the identity, the Cobi robot will indicate the location of the vaccinators, reminding them whether they need to take off their coats to facilitate the vaccination, and then scan the vaccinators through multiple lidar sensors on the body, and use the collected sensor data to create an inoculation 3D model of the patient’s body and analyze the model to determine the best position for injection.
Finally, the Cobi robot uses needle-free high-pressure serum spray technology to form a high-pressure jet (usually greater than 100 m/s) with the instantaneous high pressure generated by the pressure source, and transport the drug molecules through the skin to the subcutaneous or intramuscular area.
An opening in the skin that is only the width of a human hair is injected. Depending on the individual's physique and sensitivity to pain, it is almost painless in terms of pain.
Compared with the red and swollen needle eye after intramuscular injection of the needle in the past, this method will not leave any obvious marks on the vaccinator.
According to Cobionix officials, Cobi can be updated and reconfigured to serve multiple purposes.
Cobi's advantages and disadvantages and future prospects
Cobi's intelligent autonomy and needle-free injection play a very obvious role in saving manpower and reducing medical costs. At the same time, it is more friendly to the vaccinators.
Taking a 21g traditional injection needle as an example, the diameter of the needle is 810 microns, while the typical diameter of the high-pressure jet in needle-free injection is 76-360 microns. This 2-10 times diameter difference is almost a world-wide difference in the actual experience of patients. In most cases, it can reduce pain and can effectively improve the acceptance of treatment by patients (especially children).
Secondly, the technology has a wide range of applicability. In addition to vaccination, patients who need daily injections for a long time can also benefit from it.
As in controlling diabetes, insulin injection is still the most effective treatment option.
A diabetic patient who needs insulin injections is calculated as one injection per day, which is 365 injections a year. It can be said that the skin tissues are scarred all the year round, and the skin tissues can easily cause induration due to long-term injections.
Compared with needle-injected insulin, needle-free injection has a better blood sugar control effect for patients. In the past, the internal fear and pain caused by needles, as well as needle contamination and needle stick injuries, have also been greatly reduced.
Finally, this technology is extremely advantageous in terms of safe injection. According to WHO data, unsafe injection operations cause approximately 1.3 million deaths worldwide each year, and repeated use of injecting equipment is the most common risk factor in underdeveloped areas.
Needle-free injection can reduce the risk of unsafe injections. Needle-free injection has the advantages of safety and reduced pollution in occasions where a large area of injection is required such as vaccination.
However, the popularity of Cobi has two limitations that need to be overcome. First of all, the administration volume of needleless injection is generally 0.1~1ml, and the dose of powder needleless injection must be below 6mg.
If the dose is increased, the delivery efficiency of the drug will be significantly reduced, and at the same time it will cause greater pain. Therefore, the general needle-free injection is mainly suitable for replacing intramuscular injection with a small single dose.
Secondly, there are many unstable factors in the actual situation. Cobionix said that in order for Cobi to work in the real world, it must take into account many complex variables. It will take a few years for a robot like this to actually land and provide vaccination.
Even if it takes several years to prepare for the landing, once it can be launched to the market, it can help the population in remote areas of the world to obtain relatively fast and effective medical services, and the elimination of the fear of needles can greatly increase the overall number of vaccinations.
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