I recently received my first production sample of a new prefilled syringe case. The name of the case is MediArchitect (I know, the name is a mouthful). I have been an insulin-dependent diabetic for over 15 years and very early on, adopted the use of prefilled syringe cases to carry my insulin around. This avoids the hassle of carrying a full vial of insulin around with me and, of course, risk exposing the full vial to potential temperature-related degradation. I purchased and used prefilled syringe cases made by Medicool (Wright) and Borin-Halbich. Neither was ever 100% satisfactory although the Wright case was better suited than the latter for my purposes. I continued to use the Wright case whenever traveling or dining out â until today. Today is the day that I switched â but please donât think that this is a sales pitch. It is NOT possible to purchase the MediArchitect case online or in any store. However, it is still possible for you to obtain one (more on that later).
The picture explains some of the advantages that I wonât repeat in this post except to emphasize that MediArchitect protects your premeasured dose better than anything else currently available. Just draw out your dose, squeeze out any air bubbles, place the syringe in the case, and snap it shut. The case itself accommodates and secures any plunger position so it doesnât care whether your dose is even units, odd units, whole units, or even contains fractional units. It will protect your dose regardless.
Genuine hinges are part of the case design; not the flimsy flexi-plastic âhingesâ used in virtually all others. This allows it to open fully and lay completely flat. This makes syringe placement into â and removal from â the case effortless. That should be particularly appealing to those suffering with arthritis or other infirmities. Made via a precision injection-molded process using premium grade plastic, the finished product is then hand-assembled. So what do you think all of this is going to cost?
As stated previously, it is not yet available in any retail venue. You couldnât buy one for love or money. Well, at least not money. But I did say that it was still possible for MDI-syringe users to obtain one, didnât I? But first, the disclosure. My brother, who is also diabetic, has heard me voice my dissatisfaction with both the Wright and Borin-Halbich cases and he had similar complaints. So what did he do? He designed the MediArchitect case. Actual design effort took about a month but fine tuning, testing, tweaking, and lots of additional effort stretched it out to approximately six months. He used 3D printing technology to make the first case. He also shopped pricing to see if he could get it commercially produced but all price quotes were prohibitively high.
Then, as luck would have it, he was invited to China to serve as a technical consultant to a friend who just happened to own a high end plastic manufacturing facility. The long and short of it is that the case was finally produced, in a high-end manufacturing facility no less. So when will it be available? There are currently NO plans to bring it to market, at least not this year. So how can you get one?
Simple. Like many retired seniors, I pay taxes by filing estimates and was short this past year (I had to pay penalty and interest). I have decided to increase my charitable contributions to lower my tax exposure and have contracted with the manufacturer to ship me a fixed quantity of these â for me, as an individual â to donate FREE to non-profit institutions. The non-profit could then offer the syringe case to its supporters for a donation (the amount would be up to the organization but a minimum of $10 would seem reasonable to me). So, to get one, all you have to do is to contact your favorite diabetes non-profit group and see if they have an interest in obtaining some. If so, have them contact me through this forum. I will donate a limited quantity (up to a maximum of 100 units) to them that they could use for fund raising. No strings, no cost, even the freight will be on me. Wait, there are two strings: one, they cannot request a large number just to hoard them. The number requested must match actual 90-day distribution projections to MDI-syringe users. Two, it all has to happen this year because my tax situation may be different next year. Does that sound reasonable?
I checked the posting rules and donât believe my post violates any of them. But if it does, perhaps a moderator can modify it instead of deleting it. Thanks.