Are you afraid of injections? Don't worry.
A device invented by an Israeli and American scientist -- Professor Joseph Kost and Robert Langer -- may make hypodermic needles a thing of the past.
SonoPrep uses ultrasound to painlessly deliver medications, including local anaesthesia, according to a report.
The device applies ultrasound waves to skin for 15 seconds, disrupting a protective membrane to allow fluids to enter or exit. The openings permit larger molecules, including those of many drugs, to pass quickly through the skin. Within 24 hours the skin returns to normal.
The project, which took eight years of research, has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration and is already in the market, ISRAEL21C reported.
Manufactured by Sontra, a company jointly founded eight years ago by Kost and Langer, the device will sell for $2,000.
There are competing technologies for needle-free drug delivery such as those with electric fields, which require batteries, said Kost. But he believes his device is faster, more widely applicable to local pain relief, and can be applied to delivery of medications.
"We are now able to focus on a whole series of new applications that replace needles with ultrasound technology. The technology also allows noninvasive checks of sugar levels for diabetics without needles," Kost said.