Automated injections

A recent successful trial for a wirelessly controlled drug delivery microchip finally ushers in an era that has been anticipated for over a decade. Traditionally led life sciences companies have been resisting customized medicine and customized dosing regimes, for unknown reasons. Water has to flow downhill, however, and it is inevitable that medicine will progress toward treating each human specimen as different with differing needs and requirements. Technology to do so has been available for many years but the intent to move in this direction has been lacking.

It has arrived, but not without fundamental concerns. If humanity reaches a stage in which every new-born will get a custom implant within the first hour of birth, with sufficient knowledge to counteract genetically known weaknesses, we can substantially reduce healthcare costs. But in the present context, is such a person, really human? For most of the history of humans, disease has been as fundamental to them as food and water. They battled hunger and disease together and in many respects these battles made them human. They understood animals and the environment as their own pain and tribulations helped them see a broader universe. One has to wonder if a newly minted human with a microchip to protect her from all known disease states, will have a different perspective on her world and the environment that surrounds her.

Technology has to advance. If Philosophy does not keep pace, we will ultimately turn ourselves into robots of infinite life and zero emotions.

(1) DRUG DELIVERY : First-in-Human Testing of a Wirelessly Controlled Drug Delivery Microchip, Published in Science Translational Medicine Rapid Publication on February 16 2012, Sci Transl Med 22 February 2012:
Vol. 4, Issue 122, p. 122ra21, Sci. Transl. Med. DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.3003276

Robert Farra1,*, Norman F. Sheppard Jr., Laura McCabe, Robert M. Neer,
James M. Anderson,John T. Santini Jr., Michael J. Cima and
Robert Langer