A team of researchers at Seoul National University in South Korea have described a process using a laser device to deliver less painful injections. The laser injections could, in the future, replace needles and would be as painless as a puff of air. The laser system is already used in plastic surgery skin treatments. The goal would now be to make low-cost versions of the laser injector system for clinical use. The official name of the laser is the erbium-doped yttrium aluminium garnet (Er:YAG). It works by propelling a stream of medicine with the right force to almost painlessly enter the skin. The jet of medicine is slightly larger than the width of a human hair and reaches the speed of 30m (100ft) per second. Piston like injectors are already in use in the medical field but jet strength and drug dose are more difficult to control with these devices. The laser-driven microjet injector can more precisely control dose adn the depth of drug penetration. The device has already gone through lab testing on guinea pigs.
