# Finger-Actuated Microneedle Array for Sampling Body Fluids
## 4 Future Perspective and Conclusions  
Administration of new proactive healthcare procedures and technologies in medicine not only requires effective adoption by the society, but also well-informed framework to address any potential insecurity or anxiety concerns in patients, preventing any negative psychological effects [69, 70]. Causing discomfort/pain or trypanophobia/needle phobia in patients, injection using traditional needles requires a trained healthcare worker, confining applicability of conventional needles in deprived regions or in-home treatments. One of the advantages that MNs and MNA-based devices offer in comparison to the conventional needle technologies is their solution for the fear of needles. A statistical study reported that 7 out of 10 children and 5 out of 10 adults are needle-phobic [71], which demonstrates the need for substituting devices offering painless injection procedures. On the other hand, MNs can be administrated by patients in the point-of-care settings (no need for healthcare workers) with minimal pain. An additional ability offered by MNs is the gradual release of substances for controlled drug delivery [72], promoting the potential applications of MNs for longer term treatments. Furthermore, micromeedles can be integrated with biosignal acquisition techniques [7]. Therefore, MNs not only enable a minimally invasive injection experience, but they also can facilitate the development of wearable sensors [73] (with adherable MN patches) for continuous health monitoring, resulting in early diagnosis of disease, enhancing the success rate of therapies, decreasing healthcare costs, and ultimately promoting the wellbeing of the society. Hence, the acceptance and commercialization of MNs can be accelerated. In addition, in the last decade, many patents have been filed in MNs [74], indicating the high interest in this domain and their potential for a variety of drug delivery applications. MNs, as an emerging technology, need to be translated from laboratory bench to commercial products. Fabrication methods that are used for manufacturing microfluidic devices and MNs are rapidly advancing to more cost-efficient procedures [75,76], leading to techniques that no longer require high-cost cleanroom facilities [77]. On the other hand, employment of mass producible manufacturing techniques (e.g., replica molding [78]) can reduce the overall production cost of MNs to have a competitive price with the conventional needles. In addition, in comparison to conventional needles that are usually made of stainless steel, MNs can be fabricated with low-cost materials such as polymers [74], lowering the final cost of the product, making MNs a more economical solution in biomedical applications [74]. For example, a cost-effectiveness analysis compared the utilization of MNs to conventional needles, reporting an estimation of USD 0.95 for MNs and USD 1.65 for conventional needles for the first dose of a vaccine delivery [79]. The process of sterilization of MNs prior to applying them into the skin requires high attention, especially in the presented setup, which is aimed to be used by the user or patient rather than a healthcare worker. Sterilization allows for preventing the transmission of bloodborne pathogens such as hepatitis B (HBV), hepatitis C (HCV), human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS), malaria, and brucellosis. The materials for the fabrication of the MNs should be biocompatible to prevent any unwanted inflammations or allergies. Furthermore, for the case of blood collection, the extracted blood in the reservoir of the device is subject to undergo coagulation or erythrocyte aggregation if there is a long delay before analysis. The concept of a finger-actuated device with integration of microneedle array (MNA) and a microfluidic chip was designed for extracting body fluid samples such as blood and ISF in a simple and fast manner. We simulated the process of extracting human blood from the body in different conditions.