College Students Create an EpiPen That Fits in Your Wallet

Are you someone with serious allergies who regularly forgets your EpiPen at home? You may soon be able to stash a new, compact model of the life-saving device in your wallet, according to Gizmodo.

AdrenaCard, a small, thin epinephrine injector that’s roughly the size of a credit card, was created by a startup medical device company in northeast Minneapolis that's run by two University of Minnesota students, Tyler Ebert and Chris Kuehn.

Ebert says he was inspired to create the device based on his own experiences working as a food counselor and chef on campus. After witnessing customers suffer food-based allergic reactions, he discovered that less than half of people with allergies carry an EpiPen at all times.

“Low compliance is a universal issue for emergency medication,” Ebert told TwinCities.com. “Severe allergies alone have a compliance rate as low as 10 percent. While effective drugs are available, they simply are not being carried due to the poor usability of contemporary devices. AdrenaCard makes compliance easier, saving lives and bringing peace of mind for care providers and patients alike.”

Using AdrenaCard is simple: All someone suffering an attack has to do is slip off the device's safety band, place it against his or her leg, and push, as demonstrated in the video above.

AdrenaCard is currently going through FDA testing. If it clears, it will hit the market by 2018.

[h/t Gizmodo]