Photo Credit: ngineerit flickr

Many people suffer from chronic illnesses that require daily, even hourly, injections of medication. These injections can be frustrating, annoying, and dangerous. However, after 15 years of work, MIT professors Robert Langer and Michael Cima finally created a microchip that can be implanted once and can distribute dosages of medicine for extended periods of time. The device delivers the same dosages as the injections. In fact, Cima and Langer found that the chip delivered the dosages at a more consistent and accurate rate than the injections.

The chip would be a major help to people who need injections of medicine because it wouldn’t give them any reason, such as pain, to skip their dose. The chip can be implanted in about 30 minutes and in a trial study there were no side effects. They implanted seven women from 65 years of age to 70 years of age who suffer from osteoporosis. The chip diligently delivered their medicine for four months. This new technology can be expanded to deliver several medications for longer periods of time. It could save millions of people from daily pain.