Patent Application
20240277950
The present invention relates to a compact design for a device used with inhaled medicines and, more specifically, a reliable compact design for a dry power inhaler (DPI).
It has been a very potent and effective medication (powder form) to treat Asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). However, currently available delivery devices are not effectively spread medication to most peripheral part of the airway system in the lung, where medication effects are needed. Moreover, these devices are ugly, making patients uncomfortable to use, and mouthpieces are generally not a perfect fit to inhale all amounts of medication to deliver to the intended part of the lung.
Therefore, a need exists to develop a system and method to effectively deliver inhalation mediation to a patient of needed. A cigarette shaped device may be easy to use, convenient and even available to use in public places without being noticed by the surrounding with compliance rate increased and medication reached to most peripheral parts of the lung more effectively are desired. The device may provide not only a mouthpiece perfect fit for every user, in using medication mimic smoking, but also a patient can use medication in public compliance rate higher. Effectively sucking, even repeatedly until all single power medication is inhaled and more precise delivery of medication can be achieved.
A design as a cigarette may also stimulate suction and lips easily adapt mouthpiece of cigarette and instantly synchronize suction of powder medication, if one puff is not enough to empty all medication, a patient can repeat several puff until last powder of medication sucked in and more effective delivery results in style.
The following presents descriptions of one or more embodiments in order to provide a basic understanding of such embodiments. This summary is not an extensive overview of all contemplated embodiments and is intended to neither identify key or critical elements of all embodiments, nor delineate the scope of any or all embodiments. Embodiments of the present invention address the above needs and/or achieve other advantages by providing a reliable compact design for a dry power inhaler (DPI).
Specifically, the present invention provides a compact inhalation device (CID). The CID comprises a mouth piece, a drug chamber and an air flow chamber. The mouth piece, the drug chamber and the air flow chamber are connected to form a cylinder-shaped device, which is similar to a cigarette. For the purpose of the invention, the mouth piece, the drug chamber and the air flow chamber are coupled to provide at least medication contained in the drug chamber to a patient via the mouth piece;
In one embodiment, one end of the mouth piece fits a patient's mouth and other end of the mouth piece is connected to a first end of the drug chamber using a twisted close/open mechanism or a flapped flow close/open mechanism. Similarly, a second end of the drug chamber is connected to the one end of the air flow chamber using the twisted close/open mechanism or the flapped flow close/open mechanism; and other end of the air flow chamber has an opening for flow with ambient air.
The twisted close/open mechanism includes two surfaces with at least one opening on each surface, and the process of aligning the at least one opening by twisting provides an open flow condition and unaligned to block the at least one opening by twisting provides a close flow condition.
Difference from the twisted close/open mechanism, the flapped flow close/open mechanism includes two surfaces with an opening on a first surface of the two surfaces and a flap on a second surface of the two surfaces to close or open a flow through the opening.
In one embodiment, the drug chamber contains the at least medication, which is a dry powder medication to treat Asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), and the drug chamber has a size for a measured amount of the dry powder medication for a dose.
In one embodiment, the CID is a cigarette shaped and/or sized, for example 69 mm in length and 24.6 mm in circumference approximately, and convenient device and even available to use in public places without being noticed by surrounding with compliance rate increased and medication reached to most peripheral parts of the lung more effectively.
In one embodiment, the drug chamber contains at least one small tube for a measured amount of the dry powder medication for a dose or seven small tubes for seven days or seven doses.
In one embodiment, the twisted close/open mechanism includes two surfaces with seven openings on each surface for the seven days or the seven doses; and wherein a joint between the two surfaces is marked for a distance to be twisted for each opening of the seven openings. The at least one opening or the seven openings of the each surface of the twisted close/open mechanism have one of a circular, triangle, square or rectangle shape.
In one embodiment, the drug chamber releases medication just prior to inhaling by a patient in a mechanism by twisting at connection with adjacent part or one-way valve to a direction to the patient who start giving suction force.
Having thus described embodiments of the invention in general terms, reference will now be made the accompanying drawings, wherein:
Embodiments of the present invention will now be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which some, but not all, embodiments of the invention are shown. Indeed, the invention may be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will satisfy applicable legal requirements. Like numbers refer to like elements throughout.
As will be appreciated by one of skill in the art in view of this disclosure, the present invention may be embodied as a device or method to effectively deliver inhalation mediation to a patient. Thus, as described in more detail below, embodiments of the present invention provide for components of the device and specific mechanisms invented to implement the device in the intended purpose.
Turning now to the figures,
The CID is designed as a tube-shaped device similar to a regular cigarette, for example elongated cylindrical body, made with recycled or reusable materials. The recycled or reusable materials comprise one or combination of paper, meshed paper, meshed reinforced paper, thin plastic, hard rubber, aluminum, thin glass or carbon fiber. The mouth piece, drug chamber and airflow chamber are separable components attachable with an arrangement shown in
The mouth piece is a part which one end fits by a patient's mouth when use to suck medication and the other end is connected to the medication chamber. The medication (e.g., the drug powder) will flow into the mouth through the mouth piece when the patient start using it. The medication chamber stores measured amount of medication powder to be used. The medication chamber releases medication just prior to inhaling by a user in a mechanism by twisting at connection with adjacent part or one-way valve to a direction to a patient who start giving suction force. The airflow chamber is a top or far end of the CID allowing air from environment to push medication into the patient's mouth through the medication chamber and the mouthpiece.
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Those skilled in the art may appreciate that various adaptations and modifications of the just described embodiments can be configured without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention. Therefore, it is to be understood that, within the scope of the appended claims, the invention may be practiced other than as specifically described herein.
