After settling on the idea of a dry powder inhaler, Morley was able to consult former IVAX device engineer Paul Fairburn, now a director at Coventry, for advice. Fairburn, who had worked on the Easi-Breathe DPI provided her with some old prototypes to look at and answered questions about dispensing the powder. She decided on a capsule-based, breath-activated reusable device with a dose counter. Given the time constraints she was under, though, Morley was unable to work on design of the capsule-piercing mechanism and was able to complete only a prototype of the inhaler housing.
She enjoyed the experience, she says, and would like to pursue this type of work in the future: “I would love to develop my design further as I found it really enjoyable to work on such an interesting device. I love the fact of designing something that would enhance someone else’s life and make their future better. I would definitely say yes if their was a career for me in inhaler design or anything medical related.”
Lindsay Brenneman's bunny inhaler for the AANMA contest
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For the younger girls who entered the Ultimate Inhaler Contest sponsored by the Allergy & Asthma Network Mothers of Asthmatics (AANMA), appearance was everything. Like Morley, the winners of this competitionseemed more concerned with making the inhaler attractive than with having the ability to hide it.
Pendant inhalers imagined by Mia Catalini and Cassandra Tervalon
In fact, one of the winning designs, by 10-year old Cassandra Tervalon and 11-year-old Mia Catalini, 11 imagines the inhaler as a pendant that could be worn around the neck, complete with interchangeable jewels for the feminine version. A masculine version of the pendant inhaler would come in sports-themed designs.
Many of the designs submitted featured animal shapes. The other winning design in the ages 5-11 category, by Kate Smeenge, age 10, imagines a butterfly-shaped inhaler with a dose counter in one of the wings. The winners in the 12-18 category include a rabbit-shaped inhaler submitted by 13-year-old Lindsay Brenneman and “a mix between a dinosaur and a unicorn” that incorporates a holding chamber in its body, designed by Rachael Blaine, age 12.
During their trip to Washington, DC, to participate in Allergy & Asthma Day Capitol Hill, the main prize awarded in the AANMA contest, the girls had the opportunity to meet Charles Thiel, one of the inventors of the metered dose inhaler and a reminder that the imagination of a teenager indeed has the potential to change the course of inhaled drug delivery.
After all, as Thiel has often recounted, the original idea for dosing asthma medications from an aerosol canister came from the 13-year old daughter of a pharmaceutical company president who asked her father why she couldn’t get her asthma medication in a spray can like her hairspray.
