Speakers Marc Koska: Inventor
Marc Koska wants to improve health care in the developing world by re-designing dangerous medical tools -- and offering education to practitioners in under-funded clinics.
Why you should listen to him:
In 1984, Marc Koska read an article that predicted HIV would spread widely through unsafe injections. He writes, "Appalled at the prospect of such an avoidable catastrophe, I decided there and then to try and do something about it." The prediction, sadly, turned out to be true: syringe reuse now accounts for 1.3 million deaths -- more than malaria. In the next years, Koska undertook the study of public health to find out what could be done. He determined that the design of syringes was the critical issue.
Today, Koska's solution to the problem, the K1 syringe -- it locks down after a single injection, preventing reuse -- is in use by millions. But he hasn't stopped there: In 2005, he founded a nonprofit, SafePoint, which aims to educate people in the developing world about the dangers of reusing any instruments that come into contact with blood.
"As a member of Parliament with an interest in HIV and AIDS, to learn of Marc's work with Star Syringe was an inspiration. He will always be one of my heroes!"Laura Moffatt, Member of Parliament for Crawley
Talks Marc Koska: 1.3m reasons to re-invent the syringe
Email to a friendDiscuss this Talk
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8 hours ago: TEDsters, thanks for your comments on my talk.
Please consider this data: The syringe is cheap compared to the drug. Typically the patient is paying (in the developing world) and insists on the full dose as do the vast majority of decent healthcare workers. My invention (K1) as well as many others are approved by a rigorous process governed by WHO and ISO. We aim to make them sell at the same price as a typical syringe so there is no cost barrier, but regardless 10 syringes are only the cost of one Coke. The public need safe healthcare, and pay happily when they understand the issue and that they might be at risk. 5 cents or HIV? No brainer! But generally they falsely trust their system and accept secondary infections as part of their lot. This is now changing!
Finally TED speakers are urged to be modest so I did not mention in my talk that 1.8 billion K1 syringes have been sold and used to date, and these have prevented millions of deaths.
Marc-
Alexander Holko (+13)
7 hours ago: Im not trying to be insulting here (realy).
But i was stunned by the talk. The whole talk i felt like something had to be done, and being offerd the solution, im not realy shure if its a valid solution at all.
1. I would argue that these people don't reuse syringes for the FUN of it. using the same syringe 20 times reduces the cost by factor 20.
2.This solution seems contingent on being viewed isolated, but concidering resources this seems like a major waste in resources. There are several videos on polution and plastic on ted, and in respect to these ideas, this solution seems a very odd and wastefull way to do it.
3.As a concept of materials, syringes would lend themselffs to be reused, so the problem seems not specificly the fact that they are reused, but the conditions.
So why not raise the quality of the syringes and the price, and subsidise effective easy to use autoclavation with the money? You could even enforce the progress by a simmiliar(but nondestr.) "stop" mech. as yours. -
Mike Hopson (0)
5 hours ago: Marc
Fantastic product, am totally sold on the idea. I met today with your colleagues at Safepoint and I will be working with them to make the LifeSaver Kits a reality.
Keep up the good work
Mike -
2 hours ago: Marc,
Thanks for supplying the data on number of units sold to date. I realize that TED speakers have tight time restrictions, but I also think that talks about public health innovations must include information about distribution and effectiveness, when available, so that viewers gets a sense of how far along the innovation is. Also, such talks should address obvious objections, as in this case (1)Why won't users simply not push the plunger all the way, and (2) Why won't users just replace the broken part of the syringe.
Your talk was inspiring on a number of levels. Please keep us posted on further developments.
- Mike
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Gyula Uszkai (0)
4 hours ago: Hi,
I was aware that syringe reuse is a problem, but did not know that they repack and resale them. Taking into consideration that many products come from china because it is cheaper, and the fact that they repack them, I just realized that the concern of my friends of getting some infection while donating blood is very real. I was donating blood gladly because the lack of blood is a major issue here, and I was confident that if I supervise when they open the syringes, I'll be ok. It turns out that nope... I might die.... not a good advertising for blood donation.
Also I would like to say that if the situation is as bad as You presented, and I am sure it is, than your invention is not good. Let me explain two simple scenarios:
1. they don't push the syringe until the breaking point, so they can reuse it
2. they take out the broken inside and reuse the infected outside. Sure, it is more work and less profit cause you got only half a syringe, but I am sure they will reuse it anyway. -
Marcos Petri (+1)
5 hours ago: I loved your talk, really! I was not so impressed at first because I thought you were trying to make a new sterilization method. Fool I was! When you showed how it works I couldn't close my mouth with so surprise, hehe.
I was going ask something, but Pece Kocovski just made it gracefully.
Still, you can pull back the syringe if you didn't use all of it? Or if you push you will not be able anymore to pull back?
Other question: In which country are you sending this right now?
I will use China as an example: The recycling seemed to me pretty consistant, on your slide. The replacement on China is viable? Or in all countries?
I hope everyone spread this ideia. Congratulations, seriously! It was so kind of you realized the stupid thing that is to go to a hospital to fix yourself and become more sick 'cause of application of medicine, not the disease itself.
PS: I'm sorry about my confuse English, I'm not so good writing English. -
Ragnar Birko (+34)
11 hours ago: Of note, there are many other auto-disable syringes* in the market, some as affordable, some even more efficient but the advantage of the K1 over the other systems is that it can be manufactured using the same machinery for the same cost as existing disposable syringes (provided a free license to use the patent is allowed).
* http://bit.ly/3Ys1mx (1000! grrr...) -
This post has been removed by the author.
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Ragnar Birko (+34)
11 hours ago: I wholeheartedly agree with the title, but I do not think this method solves the problem; without access to sterile syringes and without education no system is efficient and it is no surprise that the examples he presented highlight this.
However I am certain he is well aware of this since his a nonprofit's (SafePoint) main mission is education on this issue. He is just offering this as one more tool, out of many others, to attempt to counteract unsafe disposal of used syringes.
I followed the links and though the talk is short his nonprofit is doing awesome work and tries to address the problem from every angle possible, education being the main focus. -
Morgan Ahoff (0)
12 hours ago: I'm wondering about the transition to this new type of syringe. If syringes are introduced that 'break' after a single use, won't the old ones get coveted and re-used more? Will kids sifting through trash fight over the kind they can get money for? Will the price of reusable ones skyrocket? Will nurses use single-use syringes on people known to have AIDS? Or on people known not to have AIDS? Will they give fewer injections because the syringes can only be used once, and they don't have enough?
This seems like only one facet of a complex problem, and the others need to be addressed as cleverly as this one for the whole system to work better. -
michael harris (0)
15 hours ago: most enlightening...I wouldn''t believe it if I hadn't heard it. Great invention and good luck with the next steps to get it into use.
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Faisal Khan (+1)
23 hours ago: It does not stop the needle from being reused.
It does not stop the unscrupulous from injecting multiple people with less than the full volume
It seems to be easily defeated by removing the broken plunger bit out through the needle hole or digging it out with a corkscrew type of device and then using another plunger.-
Sabin Muntean (+37)
22 hours ago: Hmmm... there goes my initial happiness.
Too simple then I guess. :( -
David Ellinger (+9)
22 hours ago: Yah, of course. I'm surprised this vid made it onto the site without some discussion. For example, did they allow questions at the time? I'm sure someone from the audience thought up this problem right away.
I don't think the 2nd method would be used as much as the first. The first is a snap, and if they're going to reuse syringes, of course they'll be willing to give people less than their full amount.-
Sabin Muntean (+37)
18 hours ago: Well, it's at least good he draw attention to this problem. How it is to be solved remains to be seen though. I can't really think of anything...
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Adam Fagan (+4)
15 hours ago: That seems like a lot more trouble than simply using a new syringe. I guess it depends on what's causing this though. Laziness or cost. Of course he did say these new syringes were inexpensive.
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Julien S-R (+7)
19 hours ago: but it only "self destructs" if you push it all the way in... if you just make sure not to do that, it can be reused (with the same substance)
it's a cool idea though. -
toby riddell (-1)
20 hours ago: The picture of the recycling operation in China is one of the scariest I have ever seen. Surely our government will not allow the importation of any medical supplies or equipment from China or India? Actually, NOT. So, when you see the Made in India or China notice on the prepackaged generic drug that you are taking, ask yourself if you or anyone can trust the system that produced the product.
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20 hours ago: But presumably they're choosing to reuse the needles..so why would they purchase this syringe rather than a standard one? Might it be cheaper to encourage proper disinfecting of syringes between use (I know it's not the perfect solution, but perhaps better than nothing?).
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Pece Kocovski (+6)
1 day ago: Such a simple little modification! Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.
Edit: Question: What if the user doesn't use the syringe all the way (i.e. only squirts half way)? Would it then be possible to re use it? Or does it break after one use and it doesn't matter if it went all the way or stopped half way with the contents still present in the syringe?
Furthermore wouldn't a way around this be to use bigger volumes and then just inject multiple individuals with the one injection? I.e. take 50 mils and give 10 mils each to 5 people.
Cheers!-
Job van der Zwan (+13)
22 hours ago: My thoughts exactly: it's a technological attempt to solve a problem which doesn't originate from technology, but from a lack of education. The real problem is the doctors and nurses not realizing the dangers of multiple syringe use.
If that isn't addressed, they'll still try to bypass this limiting technology, thinking it's a scheme of syringe makers to sell more products. Or worse: they might hang on to the old syringes without this technology even longer than they do now!
Still, I'm still in favour of this. It costs just as much as a regular syringe, and it'll make it a lot harder to reuse them. -
21 hours ago: I agree completely. Still, I think it's better than, using your example and the one from the Indian hospital, using 2 syringes for 42 shots than 5 with 1. Even if these syringes aren't complete deterrences for reusing syringes, I think that the lives that could be saved by their use are meaningful and precious enough for their implementation.
Maybe I'm just an optimist :D
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Sabin Muntean (+37)
23 hours ago: Incredible invention! So simple and yet so useful.
I wasn't even aware of the scale of infections due to syringes, but now that I hear 1,3 million I wonder how come nobody thought of adressing this issue earlier... it's just so simple.
EDIT: To whoever took the time to give me 40 thumbs down in 1 hour - you're pathetic.-
Jean-Daniel Duquette (+4)
21 hours ago: There seems to be a problem with the "thumbs" system. After reading your edit I tried to give you a thumb up and your "plus-minus" number went down!? I clicked again and it went up...
So I don't know what's happening.
By the way, I'm not the one who clicked 40 times!
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Jason Soll (+50)
23 hours ago: "I thought this was unacceptable, so I decided to do something about it."
This phrase always seems to lead to groundbreaking, new ideas. Find something unacceptable, and do something about it! Brilliant and simple. -
Kasia Bauer (0)
1 day ago: This idea is so simple that it just might get popular. I surely hope so. Some of the ways HIV is spreading that Marc showed during the presentation really shocked me: the video with the nurses reusing the same syringe.... and the kids picking up syringes at the back of the hospitals. The reality of the problem just speaks for itself.
I think that Pece's question about injecting bigger volumes might be problem - a good work-around of the safety mechanism.-
j michaels (-172)
23 hours ago: Notice the countries where this filthy practice takes place are not Christian. They are countries where the word of Christ and His Father Our Lord have not reached the ignorant masses who act as nurseries for all the diseases feared by the Christian West.
What about the unpopular notion that there is an evolutionary advantage in Christianity? Christians, despite an unhealthy interest in squandering money on space exploration, are the real winners in the evolutionary race - We have an inherent advantage in that we have been selected by God as his chosen race.
This is not to say the festering slums of India should be consigned to aids, cancer and malaria, merely that we need to more effectively preach the word of God to these pagan societies.
More Chrisitan missionaries are needed if we are to bring civilisation to these people without the aggresive persuader of war. Perhaps President Bush could help here as a global ambassador bringing a pax Christiana to the world.
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Mike Halsall (+7)
1 day ago: Great invention, now just need the factories to only make this type of syringe, which is in their interest as they will get increased revenue as a result.
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1 day ago: This is really an amazing one , the K1 syringe will really helps to control HIV through this method.Hope the government will take this seriously and use these type of syringes.
About this talk
Reuse of syringes, all too common in under-funded clinics, kills 1.3 million each year. Marc Koska clues us in to this devastating global problem with facts, photos and hidden-camera footage. He shares his solution: a low-cost syringe that can't be used twice.
About Marc Koska
Marc Koska wants to improve health care in the developing world by re-designing dangerous medical tools -- and offering education to practitioners in under-funded clinics. Full bio and more links
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