Drug Patch Design - Research Paper Example

NASA approached me to design this patch. The design I came up with in my mind was of a patch that could be worn by all astronauts and which would last at least for 60 hours so that less umber of patches would be needed. In my present project I will be studying and analyzing the rates of diffusivity in different skins while altering parametes such as diffusivity (D), thickness of membrane (L) and concentration of Scopolamine drug (Cp). The next layer would be the reservoir layer where a certain diluted concentration of the drug would be present.

It must be remembered that the concentration is extremely important since even a slightly higher concentration would have serious deleterious effects (Parrott,p1).The layers beneath this would all be permeable such that they allow the drug to slowly diffuse out of the reservoir layer and travel up to the skin. Once the drug reaches the skin it would diffuse into the skin and enter the blood. Therefore a person wearing this patch would have a constant dose of a diluted form of the drug which would help one in overcoming motion sickness and perform duties efficiently.

The patch I designed was tested a few times and recorded the values of skin thickness, diffusion rate, time and range of flux. While running the test simulations I studied 3 different test diffusivities and 3 different membrane thickness along with 7 different concentrations. All the tests run under the different test parameters helped me construct the graphs from where I obtained important conclusions. Looking at the graphs we can see that with time both concentration as well as flux gradually reduce and come to a zero.

My patch that I finalized worked with all skins and concentrations. The main scope of the test stimulations was to come up with a patch design that would be beneficial for astronauts. Firstly it must meet the time criteria i.e. it should last for several hours. Secondly the concentration should be just right. If the drug