Students come up with a wearable to deliver Epinepherine

Many across the globe rely on the faithful epinephrine to recover from allergic attacks. But what happens when someone reaches into his/her pocket and it’s not there? Well, now they wouldn’t have to worry. Rice University students have come up with a wearable which helps deliver epinephrine when the need arises.

The device, small and foldable, can be worn on the wrist like a watch. The students who came up with the device call it EpiWear. The device has a spring-activated injection system and delivers a full dose of the drug to a person experiencing an allergic reaction.

The concept was developed by junior bioengineering majors Albert Han, Alex Li, Jacob Mattia, and Justin Tang and a freshman Callum Parks of Rice University. The idea came from Justin Tang who himself suffers from peanut allergies. He had started the working on this device earlier at the Brown School of Engineering’s Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen with the mentorship of Rice lecturer Deirdre Hunter.

The students are now looking to improve upon EpiWear’s design by thinking of bringing some new colors to the device. They are also looking to integrate a watch to the device which will perhaps make it more likely to be worn by allergic patients.

EpiWear is an interesting healthcare-related innovation and it will be interesting to see how the device looks after the significant design changes. The look and feel of the wearable will play a big part in gaining popularity.