3D Printed Tablets (Printlets) with Braille and Moon Patterns for Visually Impaired Patients
by
Atheer Awad 1
, 
Aliya Yao 1, Sarah J. Trenfield 1, Alvaro Goyanes 2,3,*, Simon Gaisford 1,2 and Abdul W. Basit 1,2,*
Atheer Awad 1, Aliya Yao 1, Sarah J. Trenfield 1, Alvaro Goyanes 2,3,*, Simon Gaisford 1,2 and Abdul W. Basit 1,2,*
1
Department of Pharmaceutics, UCL School of Pharmacy, University College London, 29-39 Brunswick Square, London WC1N 1AX, UK
2
FabRx Ltd., 3 Romney Road, Ashford, Kent TN24 0RW, UK
3
Departamento de Farmacología, Farmacia y Tecnología Farmacéutica, I + D Farma Group (GI-1645), Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, 15782 Santiago de Compostela, Spain
*
Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Pharmaceutics 2020, 12(2), 172; https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmaceutics12020172
Received: 21 December 2019 / Revised: 27 January 2020 / Accepted: 11 February 2020 / Published: 19 February 2020
Visual impairment and blindness affects 285 million people worldwide, resulting in a high public health burden. This study reports, for the first time, the use of three-dimensional (3D) printing to create orally disintegrating printlets (ODPs) suited for patients with visual impairment. Printlets were designed with Braille and Moon patterns on their surface, enabling patients to identify medications when taken out of their original packaging. Printlets with different shapes were fabricated to offer additional information, such as the medication indication or its dosing regimen. Despite the presence of the patterns, the printlets retained their original mechanical properties and dissolution characteristics, wherein all the printlets disintegrated within ~5 s, avoiding the need for water and facilitating self-administration of medications. Moreover, the readability of the printlets was verified by a blind person. Overall, this novel and practical approach should reduce medication errors and improve medication adherence in patients with visual impairment.
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Keywords:
three-dimensional printing; 3D printed drug products; orally disintegrating tablets; personalised medicines; personalized pharmaceuticals; blindness; visual deprivation; touch-reading compliance; tactile patterns; sight loss
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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
MDPI and ACS Style
Awad, A.; Yao, A.; Trenfield, S.J.; Goyanes, A.; Gaisford, S.; Basit, A.W. 3D Printed Tablets (Printlets) with Braille and Moon Patterns for Visually Impaired Patients. Pharmaceutics 2020, 12, 172.
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