Chances are that you know someone who lives with a chronic condition that requires ongoing, regular treatment. Often, that treatment includes injections. More than ever, patients and families are finding themselves being transitioned from office visits to self-administration of injections at home.
As quickly as families, communities and industries adapt to changes in health care, particularly due to COVID-19 impacts, new changes arise. Cost containment, staffing shortages and safety protocols all play a role. These factors have hastened the outsourcing of medical injections to home care vendors or, in many cases, the patient. For drug delivery system manufacturers, this growing sector of need is one to consider.
The advantages of self-administered medications are the convenience of managing at home and gaining a sense of control and confidence of the condition. If mastered, self-administration can also improve the patient’s health through high compliance. Downsides are poor training currently available to patients, the risk of self, family or other people of needlestick injuries due to improper safety or disposal, and fear that can lead to non-compliance and greater health risks.
This article takes a look at the emerging drug delivery device landscape, and the opportunity for innovators to seek new ways of accommodating patient capabilities and deficits, while increasing the safety, comfort and reducing risks of the self-administration market.
