Latest By
Category:


Armor
Artificial Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work

"[Science fiction is] an integration of the mood and attitude of science (the objective universe) with the fears and hopes that spring from the unconscious."
- Gregory Benford

Transdermal Drug Capsule  
  A drug capsule that delivers medication by being placed on the skin.  

Director Jason Dill has had a difficult day; he would like to calm down immediately.

"Dog eat dog," he said aloud...

Jason Dill put down the form. He opened a drawer of his desk and got out a flat metal tin; from it he took a capsule which he placed against his wrist. At once the capsule dissolved through the dermal layers; he felt it go into his body, passing into his blood stream to begin work without delay. A tranquilizer... one of the newest ones in the long, long series.

From Vulcan's Hammer, by Philip K. Dick.
Published by Ace Books in 1960
Additional resources -

This is a very early science-fictional use of this concept. As far as I can find out, the first transdermal drug patches were not commercially available until 1979 (for self-administration of scopolamine for motion sickness).

Modern-day (real-life) transdermal drug delivery patches offer significant advantages:

  • Multi-day doses from a single action
  • No injection trauma or complaints (leading to greater patient compliance for self-administered medications)
  • Direct control of drug administration to bloodstream increases efficacy and decreases incidence of dosage peaks and troughs
  • Patch confirms that drug is being administered
  • Perfect for delivery of drugs that have short half-lives, are too potent to be delivered orally or cannot be delivered through inhalation
  • Patch bypasses gastrointestinal tract avoids metabolism in the liver, bypassing the problem of liver toxicity.

Comment/Join this discussion (BACK ON!) ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |

Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from Vulcan's Hammer
  More Ideas and Technology by Philip K. Dick
  Tech news articles related to Vulcan's Hammer
  Tech news articles related to works by Philip K. Dick

Transdermal Drug Capsule-related news articles:
  - Nanopatch Delivers Vaccines

Articles related to Medical
CARMAT Bioprosthetic Total Human Heart Replacement
Physical Exam? We've Got Apps
Japan's Nursing Home Robot Plan
Mini-Livers Made By 3D Printer

Want to Contribute an Item? It's easy:
Get the name of the item, a quote, the book's name and the author's name, and Add it here.

<Previous
Next>

Google
  Web TechNovelgy.com   

 

 

Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.

 

 

 

 

More News

MIT Robot Cheetah Video Shows Gait Transition
'The legs are long, curled way up to deliver power, like a cheetah's.'

TrackingPoint Smart Rifle
Not your typical 'smart bullet' approach.

Sky City's 220 Stories Are Go
'It rested among green parklands and... stood in total isolation, a glittering block of whites and flashing windows dotted with colors.'

CARMAT Bioprosthetic Total Human Heart Replacement
'George Walt's corporate existence proved the workability of wholly mechanical organs...'

Personal Sniffer Robots
'...The ticking combinations of the olfactory system of the hound.'

Physical Exam? We've Got Apps
See the future of handheld, personal medical devices.

The Interplanetary Internet, Vint Cerf Speaking
'This was the center of Interplanetary Communications.'

Drosophila Robotica, The Mechanical Fly
'... the Scarab [flying robot] buzzed into the great workroom as any intruding insect might...'

Robo-Raven Flapping Wing Robot Bird
'When he had first built them, they had been crude indeed, flying mechanisms with little more than a reflex-response unit.'

More SF in the News

More Beyond Technovelgy

Home | Glossary | Invention Timeline | Category | New | Contact Us | FAQ | Advertise |
Technovelgy.com - where science meets fiction™

Copyright© Technovelgy LLC; all rights reserved.