Breastmilk Medicinal Agent Delivery Device with Sealing Region
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods for delivering medicinal agents to infants through breast milk are inefficient, often requiring complex preparations and refrigeration, and may result in inaccurate dosing and reduced stability of medications, particularly for conditions like HIV and malaria, where prophylactic treatment is crucial.
Innovation Solution
Development of a delivery device worn by a breastfeeding mother that integrates a nipple portion with a bulbous region and a neck region, featuring strategically designed openings and a shelf to facilitate the mixing and flow of breast milk with medicinal agents, ensuring efficient delivery and stability of therapeutics without the need for refrigeration or complex preparation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Stability of the object's composition
If complex preparations and refrigeration are used to deliver medicinal agents through breast milk, then therapeutic stability is improved, but device complexity and ease of operation deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The device segments the medication delivery system into separate components: a reservoir for the medicinal agent and a breast shield portion. This allows the medication to be delivered through breast milk without requiring complex preparation systems or refrigeration, as the segmentation enables simple integration of the drug reservoir with the nursing device.
Solution Approach 2:
The device uses breast milk as an intermediary medium to deliver the medicinal agent to the infant. The breast shield portion with openings allows breast milk to flow through and pick up the medicinal agent from the reservoir, naturally mixing and delivering the therapy without requiring complex preparation systems or temperature control.
2Stability of the object's composition
If complex preparations and refrigeration are used to deliver medicinal agents through breast milk, then therapeutic stability is improved, but ease of operation deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The device is designed to be self-regulating during breastfeeding. The breast shield portion with openings automatically allows breast milk to flow through and interact with the medicinal agent in the reservoir during normal nursing. The system uses the natural breastfeeding process to mix and deliver the medication without requiring additional操作步骤 or temperature control by the user.
3Device complexity
If medicinal agents are delivered through breast milk without specialized devices, then device complexity is reduced, but manufacturing precision and dosing accuracy deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The device concentrates the medicinal agent in a specific localized reservoir within the breast shield portion. The openings in the breast shield are strategically positioned to ensure proper flow dynamics, creating localized zones of drug-milk interaction that ensure accurate and consistent dosing to the infant during breastfeeding.
4Device complexity
If medicinal agents are delivered through breast milk without specialized devices, then device complexity is reduced, but reliability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The device is designed to be dynamic during breastfeeding, with the breast shield portion allowing natural movement and compression as the infant nurses. The openings and reservoir configuration adapt to the dynamic breastfeeding process, ensuring reliable and consistent medication delivery throughout the feeding session regardless of position or flow rate variations.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The device ensures accurate and full delivery of medicinal agents, reducing the complexity of administration, maintaining therapeutic stability, and promoting proper hygiene, thereby improving health outcomes for infants by providing a low-cost, efficient means of delivering essential therapeutics through breast milk.
Implementation Method 1
featuring strategically designed openings and a shelf to facilitate the mixing and flow of breast milk with medicinal agents
Data Source
AI summary
The present technology is a device for delivering a medicinal agent to a breastfeeding child. One embodiment comprises a first portion configured to be positioned on the breast during breastfeeding a second portion having an agent region and a sealing region. The agent region is configured to house the agent during breastfeeding and has a first cross-sectional area. The sealing region has a second cross-sectional area at least great enough to surround and engage a circumference of the nipple but less than the first cross-sectional area. When the device is positioned on the breast and the child is breastfeeding, the device is configured such that the nipple extends through the sealing region into the agent region and the portion of the delivery device at the sealing region contacts the nipple, thereby reducing or preventing the flow of breast milk and/or the agent through the sealing region to the first portion.