We've written about microneedles before. For the past few years, researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have been working on a patch of tiny needles that can deliver drugs painlessly and easily.
But the molecules of many drugs are too large to be delivered transdermally (through the skin), which is how conventional patches work, and would not fit through these newer microneedles.
Researchers at Purdue University, however, have developed a new type of pump that should exert enough force to squeeze drugs through microneedle patches, thereby reducing the need (at least in some instances) for injection via those old-tech, scary hypodermic needles.
The pump holds both the drug and a liquid (contained separately in a pouch) that boils at body temperature; the resulting vapor exerts enough pressure to force the drug through the 20-micron-wide needles. In other words, the heat of one's finger is all that's required to activate the pump. LINK
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