New drug delivery form

[farmadiazepine]

So instead of pills, microchips implanted in your body would be delivering drugs at the right dose, interval, etc. Doctors can even adjust your dosage remotely. Any thoughts?

http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2014/04/health/the-cnn-10-healing-the-future/?frame=1&hpt=hp_bn13

My first thought: You don't need a pharmacist anymore.

But then I realized, yes you still need pharmacists. Someone has to make sure the order was done right and that it won't kill a patient. Everything we currently do can be applied to microchip "dispensing" just minus the physical act of counting pills and putting them in a bottle.

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[npage148]

drug potency would be the biggest issue with this system unless you want a system the size of a golfball. 30 day supply of meds would be gram quanitites for anything requiring more than 3mg/day. And subcutaneous bioavaliabity and aqueous solubility (couldn't use organic solvents to dissolve drug), stability, etc.

In the research world we already have implantable osmotic pumps and while they sounds amazing they are problematic with anything other than the simplest situations

 

[radio frequency]

As a patient, I wouldn't want such a long term commitment to one medication. What if newer, safer, better meds came out in the meantime? Taking a pill everyday isn't really that hard.

Getting things implanted or removed also sounds unpleasant.