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09/11/2009
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Getting stabbed with a hypodermic needle is not just something that happens to heroes and heroines in movies; it is something that is suffered by healthcare professionals every day.
 Problems occur when cleaning up hospital wards, where needles may have been dropped, healthcare workers colliding with each other, handling syringes, especially when attaching needles and recapping them, or handling bags of rubbish in which needles have been improperly disposed.
As well as causing injury, there is a risk that diseases may be transferred to the healthcare worker. The main concerns are with Hepatitis B and C, as well as HIV.
While the average risk is said to be three infections per 1000 injuries for HIV, the risk is rather higher for Hepatitis B and C. These are the diseases people worry about most, but there are also a whole host of others that can be acquired this way. And even if the healthcare professional contracts nothing, the loss of time incurred in taking precautions brings the cost to the NHS of needlestick injuries to an estimated total of £300million per year.
The Challenge
Our challenge this month is to reduce or hopefully eliminate this hazard. One solution would be to do away with the need for humans to use hypodermic needles. If the drug or treatment can be administered nasally or orally, there is no need for an injection. But if there is, there are many instances where the treatment can pushed or blown through the skin.
Where the drug has to go in deep – to reach a nerve to numb the jaw for dentistry, for example – there seems to be no alternative to the needle.
Medical treatment could be administered by robots, but apart from being expensive and complicated, the machines would have to be very closely controlled by human operators – and somebody would still need to handle the needle at some point.
However, a simple method has been developed that ensures that human users of hypodermic syringes have no possibility of coming into contact with the wrong end of a needle – unless they make an effort to either stab themselves or somebody else.
The solution depends on handling the needles – both when they go onto the syringe and when they come off – in such a way that humans are completely protected from them.
The solution we offer is not robotic, it is simple, mechanical and low cost. Once you see it, you may consider it obvious. But do you have a better solution? If you do, then let us hear about it.
Solution
The solution to the November challenge, to come up with a safer hypodermic needle - is the StickSafe. This consists of a disposable medical tray made of paper pulp, with a patented clutch mechanism that grips the needle cap.
The way it is used is that the needle with its cap on is put on the syringe. This is then inserted into an aperture in the tray that features the clutch mechanism which then removes the syringle from its cap. Once used the needle is reinserted into the cap gripped in the tray, twisted off and disposed off.
The innovation greatly reduces the amount of 'sharps' waste, as needles can be disposed of without the syringes attached. This could mean a potential cost saving for the NHS of £160million. The invention has received various accolades, the latest of which was a Double Gold award in the Industrial category at the British Invention Society Awards in October 2009.
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Author
Tom Shelley
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