User experience for manual injection of 2 mL viscous solutions is enhanced by a new prefillable syringe with a staked 8 mm ultra-thin wall needle

ABSTRACT

Objectives

User experience was compared between a new pre-fillable 2.25 mL glass syringe equipped with an ultra-thin-wall (UTW) 8 mm staked needle and a marketed BD Neopak™ syringe equipped with a special-thin-wall (STW) 12.7 mm staked needle.

Methods

Participants simulated subcutaneous injections with both syringes alone (formative Human Factors study) and in combination with a needlestick-prevention device (validation Human Factors study).

Results

Usability results of both studies showed higher success rates for delivering the full dose of 2 mL viscous solution (30 cP) with the 8mmUTW syringe than with the 12.7mmSTW one (63% vs. 42% in the formative study). The use of the 8mmUTW syringe demonstrated also better ease of use and acceptance results and 72% of formative study participants preferred this new syringe over the current one when delivering the viscous solution. Using a shorter needle also showed a benefit in decreasing the injection-related anxiety. Besides, in the case of a non-recommended injection technique, the calculated risk of accidental intramuscular injection is reduced by 2 to 13 times with the 8mmUTW syringe.

Conclusion

Altogether, the results obtained demonstrated an improvement of the user experience with this new syringe compared to the current one in the manual delivery of 2 mL viscous solutions.

KEYWORDS:

• Human factors
• usability
• user experience
• viscous drug delivery
• manual subcutaneous injection
• prefillable syringe
• 8 mm needle
• ultra-thin wall cannula
• needlestick prevention device
• chronic care

Author contributions

A Pager, K Guerrero, T Tzvetkova-Chevolleau contributed to the conception, design and analysis of the human factors testing. D Morel developed the mathematical model data analysis methods. A Combedazou wrote the paper with the inputs from all authors. All authors reviewed the manuscript. C Frolet and S Glezer supervised the project.

Declaration of interest

All authors are employees of BD Medical Pharmaceutical Systems. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

Reviewer disclosures

Peer reviewers on this manuscript have received an honorarium from Expert Opinion on Drug Delivery for their review work, but have no other relevant financial relationships to disclose.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was sponsored by BD Medical - Pharmaceutical Systems.