Unless you're a piercing fanatic, you're probably not crazy about the idea of getting stabbed when you go to the doctor's office. California company nanoBioSciences figured out a way to stop the violence with AdminPatch, a drug delivery system that uses an array of tiny microneedles that barely pierce the skin, delivering those medications to either the local area or the bloodstream.

But isn't this akin to death by a thousand cuts? Nope. The needles are so shallow and small, they don't go deep enough to hit nerve endings, so they're said to be completely painless. They open tiny channels, or micropores, for the drugs to rapidly enter, and then when the patch is removed, those micropores instantly close up to ward off infection.

This technique is not quite as slick as Dr. McCoy's air injections on Star Trek, but it's a start. Manufacturing these patches is simple and cheap, and using them is easy enough for anyone. Sure, those needles look small enough not to hurt, but sometimes the drugs themselves cause the stinging. Even so, any less pain and the lack of deep stabbing will be a welcome innovation.

Via MedGadget