When it comes to injections, I have been afraid of needles since childhood.
Even though it doesn’t really hurt much,
the sight of a needle makes me scared again.
So I couldn’t help but wonder:
Is it possible to inject a vaccine without a needle?
I didn’t expect that
this has truly been achieved by a team from Tongji University!
On January 17, a team led by Associate Professor Qi Peng, an awardee of the “Shanghai Science and Technology Youth 35 Leaders Program”, officially launched a fully automatic needle-free vaccine injection robot. This project is based on world-leading human 3D model recognition algorithms and adaptive robotic technology, combined with mechatronics needle-free injector design, developed in collaboration with several technology companies (Feixi Technology, Beijing Keshur Medical Technology Co., Ltd.) and the Chinese Cardiovascular Physicians Innovation Club (CCI). This is the first complete technical verification solution of its kind released in China.
▍Is Needle-Free Injection Accurate and Pain-Free?
Needle-free injection is not a brand new concept; previously, needle-free injectors for insulin have already appeared. The needle-free injection model significantly reduces the fear of needles and the pain associated with them, but this type of needle-free injection still has a problem: it requires human control. If the injection position is not aligned properly, it is easy to fail, thus this technology has not been widely adopted in other scenarios.
The fully automatic needle-free vaccine injection robot developed by Qi Peng’s team at Tongji University adds elements of medical robotics to the traditional human-controlled needle-free injection, making the injection process truly automated.
Qi Peng explained that the process of the medical robot performing needle-free vaccine injection can be divided into three steps:
First, the automatic vaccine injection robot can automatically identify the specified vaccine injection site on the body through machine vision, locating the muscle part that needs to be injected;
At the same time, the multi-degree-of-freedom robotic arm adaptively completes flexible automated operations;
Then, the needle-free injection part of the robot can inject our medication into the muscle using a high-pressure water column, completing the vaccine injection process.
The water column is very thin, so it can be said to be almost painless, and since there is no needle, it can avoid the trauma and cross-infection caused by needles.
At the same time, needle-free injection allows the vaccine medication to be distributed diffusely under the skin or muscle tissue, increasing the surface area of vaccine contact with the subcutaneous or muscle tissue, thus enhancing the immune response after vaccination.
This needle-free injection robot is named “Hou Yi”, according to Qi Peng, this name has two meanings: “On one hand, we have entered the post-pandemic era, ‘Hou Yi’ is a homophone for ‘post-vaccine’, and vaccines are a significant way for us to resist viruses; on the other hand, ‘Hou Yi’ is the hero in our traditional mythology who shot down the suns, naming the needle-free injection robot as Hou Yi also highlights the effectiveness and accuracy of this technology.”
▍Behind a Simple Injection Lies Years of Technological Accumulation
In fact, last November, a Canadian company released a needle-free vaccine injection robot, while Qi Peng’s team’s “Hou Yi” was released slightly later. Qi Peng did not shy away from this issue, stating, “Although ‘Hou Yi’ was released two months late, its research and development actually started quite early.”
According to Qi Peng, from the concept of needle-free injection robots being proposed to the actual product release took more than a year. During the R&D process, many domestic technology companies participated, including those that have been deeply involved in needle-free injectors for 15 years and possess independent intellectual property rights, these companies worked with Qi Peng’s team to complete this technological breakthrough.
The birth of this robot is also inseparable from the years of research by Qi Peng’s team in the field of medical robotics. In 2020, during the pandemic, Qi Peng’s team designed and developed a fully automatic intravenous blood collection robot, which accumulated experience for the needle-free vaccine injection, “From our previous work on intravenous injection robots, we had already thought about this concept—how to apply intravenous injection to our vaccine injections, as intravenous injection requires finding the blood vessel, while vaccine injection needs to avoid the blood vessel and inject into the muscle.”
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▍Focusing on Clinical Needs for Sustainable Medical Robotics
When asked how they thought of developing the intravenous blood collection and needle-free injection robots, Qi Peng stated: “Researching medical robots requires attention to clinical application needs, during the pandemic, we discovered many tasks in hospitals that could be accomplished through automation technology, with this intention, we developed these robots.”
Qi Peng explained: “Medical robots are primarily an intersection of medicine and engineering. Many specific needs in the medical field are hard for engineers to conceive, which requires the medical robotics team to discuss repeatedly with hospital doctors to refine the product.
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He cited an example that when they developed the intravenous blood collection robot, the initial envisioned scenario was merely for use at blood collection windows, but through discussions with doctors, they realized that there were two pain points in clinical blood collection: one is the difficulty of collecting blood from children, and the other is the difficulty of puncturing arteries for vital sign monitoring before surgery. The blood collection robot can better demonstrate its advantages in these two scenarios.
Currently, Qi Peng’s team is focusing on cardiac interventional robots. Cardiac interventional surgeries often require doctors to wear very heavy lead aprons, performing very delicate operations next to the patient bed for extended periods, which is very tiring. Qi Peng stated that in these delicate operations, robots have their advantages. Therefore, if robotic technology can be utilized effectively, it would greatly assist doctors.
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“There is a significant demand for medical robots in China, with many application scenarios in hospitals. Through medical robots, we can better serve doctors and help patients, which is a very meaningful endeavor.”
Source: Shanghai Science and Technology
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