Popular Source:
Ellin, Abby. 2015. “Can’t Swallow a Pill? There’s Help for That.” New York Times, September 21. Accessed October 22, 2017. https://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/09/21/cant-swallow-a-pill-theres-help-for-that.
Abby Ellin is a journalist and author who writes for many publications, including: The New York Times, Time, New York, and others. She has a BS in communications and writes a variety of topics, from healthcare to travels.
In this article, she writes about the issue of taking medications in two forms: liquid solution or pills. Ellin writes that some children and adults experience anxiety and negative associations with swallowing a pill. She introduces various solutions, which include taking liquid medications and using a specialized pill-swallowing cup; “The cup is filled with fluid, and the pill is placed in a reservoir so the liquid and the pill mix in the mouth” (Ellin, 2015). Some other solutions include leaning back and imaging a slide when swallowing and rolling up a bread with the pill inside and swallow. Building off this source, my group decides to make a cup that not only becomes a reservoir for the pill, but completely turns the pill into liquid. Using this source, our group can build off pre-existing ideas and see an impression of why our innovation is necessary.
Academic Source:
Liu, Fang, Sejal Ranmal, Hannah K. Batchelor, Mine Orlu-Gul, Terry B. Ernest, Iwan W. Thomas, Talia Flanagan, and Catherine Tuleu. 2014. “Patient-Centred Pharmaceutical Design to Improve Acceptability of Medicines: Similarities and Differences in Paediatric and Geriatric Populations.” Drugs 74, no. 16 (October 2): 1871-1889. Accessed October 22, 2017. doi: 10.1007/s40265-014-0297-2.
Fang Liu is the primary author of the academic journal article. She is a Senior Lecturer in Pharmaceutics and Drug Delivery. She joined University of Hertfordshire in 2009 as a Lecturer in Clinical Pharmaceutics. Her research interests include gastrointestinal targeting, development of age-appropriate formulations, and investigating medication management. She published her works in over 10 peer reviewed journals and she co-authors a book on polymers for oral drug delivery.
In this article, Liu describes the idea of various designs of oral medicines that correspond to different age groups. The taste, smell, viscosity of liquid or shape of pills are all considerations to the oral medications. It also has research on the acceptability of oral medicines among different age group, referencing to children, adolescence, and even adults’ inability to swallow pills. She concludes that children and older adults have similar difficulties to swallow pills, which can be solved through taking other medications like liquid formulations or covering pills with a gelatin of better taste (MedCoat). From her research, I learned that most researchers are trying to make pills more accepted instead of finding ways to administer liquid formulations. When I read this, I realized that our innovation might not be deemed necessary for most age groups because they prefer pills and tablets. As a result, this article helps me to be more specific with the age groups. I have to consider specifications for children and elderly.
Preis, Maren. 2015. “Orally Disintegrating Films and Mini-Tablets—Innovative Dosage Forms of Choice for Pediatric Use.” AAPS PharmSciTech 16, no. 2 (March 5): 234-241. Accessed October 22, 2017. doi: 10.1208/s12249-015-0313-1.
Maren Preis is a researcher at Åbo Akademi University. She researched and wrote about Pharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Technology, Drug Delivery Systems, and Pharmaceutical formulation. She has a PhD in Anesthetics, Pediatrics, and Pharmacy.
This article focuses on aspects that affect the administration of oral drugs. Preis reiterates the importance of dosage form. For children, swallowing pills can be difficult. Because these pills are designed with various considerations like the time of digestion, leaving pills in children’s mouth not swallowed can be problematic. Therefore, she describes the use of pills and tablets that can quickly disintegrated in one’s mouth as a potential promising medication. This would solve the problem of children being unable to swallow their medications. When I read this article, I find that this guideline has similar effects to our innovation. Our innovation does the disintegration for children while Preis talks about pills that are easily disintegrating. What I learn from this article is the existence of this new framework approved by FDA for the purpose of making better medicines for children. Learning this would solve the problem of finding some mixtures that can quickly disintegrate medicines. These mixtures would be placed in our pill dissolver. After a pill is placed in the pill dissolver, users would shake the pill dissolver and the mixtures would disintegrate the pill.
