Comfort from the Cold

Comfort from the Cold Comfort from the Cold Comfort from the ColdThree freshman engineers at Rice University who call themselves Team Comfortably Numb have been tasked with making a needle puncture much less painful, especially for children. They have come up with the idea of applying the same endothermic reaction used in cold compress packs to numb skin before the needle punctures it.The device is currently external. The next step is to incorporate the endothermic device inside the cap of a needle for more convenient use.The gruppe is made up of computer science major Greg Allison, bioengineering major Andy Zhang, and mechanical engineering major Mike Hua. They currently have a functioning prototype that has been shown to produce a measurable numbing effect in 60 seconds, which in turn reduces the pain from an injection.The team got started on the project by taking a class called Introduction to Engineering Design, taught by Ann Saterbak and Matthew Wettergreen. Students elect to en roll in this class and are placed into interdisciplinary konzept teams to work on one of the offered projects, which include design for disabilities, enrichment devices for the Houston Zoo, medical devices, and solutions for low-resource settings.In the course, the student teams learn and apply engineering design to solve a challenge. The teams are also eligible to compete in the annual Rice Engineering Design Showcase. The course lasts for one semester, but students can continue their work when the semester is over.The device numbs the skin by producing a rapid chemical reaction. Image Rice UniversityTeam Comfortably Numb was given the project by its sponsor and co-inventor, Mehdi Razavi, a cardiac electrophysiologist at the Texas Heart Institute. The students were asked to design and make a low-cost, easy-to-use numbing system that would be compatible with existing hypodermic syringes.Our device is 3D printed and consists of two sealed chambers containing the chemical ammonium nit rate and water, said Mike Hua, the mechanical engineering major. A simple twisting motion moves the chambers into alignment to allow the chemicals to flow through the chamber to produce a rapid endothermic reaction. We then numb the skin by contacting the devices metal surface to the patients skin.The team has also done further work for both prototype development and testing. For example, they are still working on optimizing the temperature to numb the skin and are also working on miniaturizing the device.Currently, the team has filed for a provisional patent. The students are thinking of either starting a company around the product to commercialize it or to license their device and idea to a medical device company.The students are not authorized to actually puncture anyones skin with a needle. Razavi, their project sponsor, has experience in the area of medical testing. He said the team will need approval from an institutional review board before it can test the product on people.T he bioengineering major, Andy Zhang, said commercialization of a product is still a bit down the line for the team, but in mass production the cost of their device will be comparable to that of a syringe and a needle. They estimate that it will cost roughly $2 if it is mass produced.Learn about the latest developments in bioengineering at ASMEs Global Congress onNanoEngineering for Medicine and Biology For Further Discussion Our device is 3D printed and consists of two sealed chambers containing the chemical ammonium nitrate and water.Mike Hua, Rice University