Joe Reynolds, Research Manager at Noble International, Inc. talks about needle anxiety and how training devices can help.
Interview conducted by Ivanhoe Broadcast News in November 2018.
You have a little background in healthcare don’t you?
Joe Reynolds: I’ve been with the company now, Noble, for seven years. I worked in a few different functions of the business from marketing and R&D and engineering to really product development with our customers. And before coming to Noble I worked at the University of South Florida in Tampa and did my educational background, undergrad in business, master’s degree in business and master’s in pharmaceutical sciences and regulatory affairs.
I want to ask you a couple of questions about needle anxiety. Is it a real thing?
Joe Reynolds: It’s a very real thing. Needle phobia, needle anxiety, we see there’s a really big treatment adherence barrier for a lot of the patients that we work with.
How so? What are you hearing from the patients? What are the biggest concerns?
Joe Reynolds From a lot of the patients that we have the chance to interact with, the onboarding experience that they go through with self-injecting medications is a really emotional time period for them, learning about their treatment, learning how to use their device. One of the common fears that we hear from our patients is the fear of the needle. They’re worried about it hurting. They’re worried about doing it properly. And those are the types of fears and barriers that we try to address through training.
You mentioned training. How do you go about helping people get over that fear?
Joe Reynolds: As a company, really our product portfolio around the training and onboarding needs of our patients. We take a very holistic view to understand them at a emotional and psychological level. And then applying technologies to help them overcome those fears. With me needle anxiety, for example, we’ve developed needle simulation technology that mimics the insertion force curve profile for different needle characteristics. And through our years of studies, it’s been effective at helping patients overcome that fear and build confidence in their ability to self manage their treatments.
You mentioned a term, needle …
Joe Reynolds: Anxiety.
Well, needle force something. Can you tell me what that is again and what’s happening?
Joe Reynolds: When a needle is going into the body, the skin has an elastic characteristic to it. The force curve profile is really not linear. There’s different stages and peaks during the needle going into the body. There is an initial deformation, where the skin is relaxing. And then the needle punctures the skin. And then that force continues to ramp up until the needle has reached its destination. And then it stays there until the patient removes it from their body. We spent quite a few months developing a platform to mimic that for different needle characteristics, like the gauge, the wall thickness, the bevel type. We did a pig lab with samples and needles to characterize what those profiles look like. And then we also did a cadaver lab here at Florida Hospital using our technology on real human skin samples through development as well.
What is the end product? What did you come up with in terms of product that would help patients?
Joe Reynolds: We developed a needle agitator platform. The needle itself, the training needle retracts into the device. And it mimics the characteristics of the needle for a prefilled syringe. And we’ve also applied that to our auto injector portfolio to mimic manual and automatic needle insertion and removal. We’ve found that training is really effective to help people develop a mental model and muscle memory. But one thing that we hear from patients is that initial needle sensation, when it’s going into the body, it catches them off guard. And it’s just a human behavior, when the body’s in pain, tries to avoid it. I think of it like touching a hot stove. And we see that with patients. They have a tendency to want to remove that device before the injection’s finished. So we developed a technology to help simulate that so they can overcome it.
Tell me about that. How does it help patients overcome that? Does your simulator hurt or no?
Joe Reynolds: We designed it not to inflict pain but rather to simulate the tactile feel of the needle sequence. If the patient’s inserting the needle themselves, and they would feel that sensation. Whereas, if the device was inserting it, then we’d calibrate the feature to mimic that sequence.
It sounds like a simple question – but what’s the benefit to the patient, either if they’re doing self injection or if they’re practicing on a child?
Joe Reynolds: For us it’s all about building confidence and giving patients the tools and resources that they need to confidently manage their treatments. Giving them a training device that allows them to practice safely. And when they go to do their real injection, then hopefully it’s decreasing their anxiety and making it a good experience for them.
END OF INTERVIEW
This information is intended for additional research purposes only. It is not to be used as a prescription or advice from Ivanhoe Broadcast News, Inc. or any medical professional interviewed. Ivanhoe Broadcast News, Inc. assumes no responsibility for the depth or accuracy of physician statements. Procedures or medicines apply to different people and medical factors; always consult your physician on medical matters.
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