Someday, patch may replace needle

Hypodermic needles — a child’s worst nightmare, a necessity for diabetics and an everyday tool of medicine for 150 years — could be history within several years if researchers from the University of Toronto have their way.

Two chemists, Geoffrey Ozin and Kai Landskron, say they have created an unusual material using man-made molecules called dendrimers. They believe the material can store drugs, and, when spread on the skin as a film, allow them to dissipate into a patient’s bloodstream like a new type of patch.

Unlike patches currently sold in drug stores, the scientists believe that their material can deliver smaller amounts of drugs over a longer period of time.

Before getting to testing, which itself could take a few years, they must produce enough of it for experimenting and overcome the price tag of the key ingredient, dendrimers, which are complex and difficult to produce.

Seniors miss vital connection

Seniors with lower income and less education are missing out on the rich online resources available for choosing doctors, prescription drug plans and treatment options, a health care research organization warned in releasing a new survey.

The Kaiser Family Foundation found that 31 percent of Americans age 65 and older have ever used the Internet. That figure drops to 15 percent among those making less than $20,000 a year and 18 percent among those with a high school degree or less.

“As a society we really haven’t focused on that very much,” said Vicky Rideout, the study’s director. “We focus on kids.”

Now that it’s becoming increasingly important for seniors to make complicated decisions about health care, policy makers need to figure out how to get more seniors online, she said.

A brochure can’t help seniors choose a Medicare drug plan or a doctor the same way an interactive tool can, Rideout said.

Multitasking critiqued

Multitaskers aren’t necessarily getting more done, a new survey finds.

According to the study, 67 percent say they clean the house, cook and take care of their kids simultaneously, while 47 percent say they read or write e-mail while talking on the phone. Half say they use cell phones while driving.

All told, 90 percent of American adults say they multitask.

But nearly six out of 10 say that despite being busier, they feel they’re getting less done.

“Studies have shown that multitasking too often decreases rather than increases productivity, resulting in inefficiency, sloppy thinking and mistakes,” said Mariette DiChristina, executive editor of Scientific American MIND, the magazine that commissioned the study by Harris Interactive.

The telephone-based survey of 1,005 U.S. adults, conducted Dec. 9-12, has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.