Another semi-finalist in the History Channel’s Modern Marvels 2007 Invent Now Challenge is the dual chambered Simple Shot syringe designed for the reconstitution of powdered medications. The inventor, Kim Bertron, was inspired to develop the Simple Shot after a stressful experience trying to give her daughter an emergency shot of glucagon during a life threatening episode of hypoglycemia.
The SimpleShot is a single syringe with two sealed chambers. For the purpose of a glucagon emergency shot, the lower chamber stores the powder form glucagons, and the upper chamber stores the diluting solution. As the pointed post is depressed, the membrane seal between the two chambers is broken, allowing the diluting solution to pass through a tapered hole in a plunger located in the lower chamber above the powder-form glucagon. Reconstitution of the glucagon medication begins when the diluting solution and the powder medication interact. The pointed post is further depressed and enters the large diameter of the tapered hole in the plunger. The outer diameter of the pointed post interferes with the decreasing inner diameter of the tapered hole, which seals the tapered hole in the plunger and forces the plunger to move toward the needle, subsequently expelling the reconstituted medication from the syringe.
