Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a new needle-free way to deliver the flu vaccine: A patch that allows individuals to inoculate themselves.

The patch's inventors say the device offers the possibility of getting your annual flu immunization in the mail instead of at the doctor's office, NBC News reports.
 

"Our dream is that each year there would be flu vaccine patches available in stores or sent by mail for people to self-administer," said Mark Prausnitz, a professor of biomolecular engineering at Georgia Tech. "People could take them home and apply them to the whole family. We want to get more people vaccinated, and we want to relieve healthcare professionals from the burden of giving these millions of vaccinations."
 

The surface of patch has 50 tiny needles that barely penetrate the skin. Tests of the device found that it works as well as the traditional flu shot and people were able to use the device correctly with little instruction.
 

The researchers said it not only would be less costly than administering the traditional flu shot, but would also greatly increase the number of people getting inoculated. Right now, fewer than half of all Americans who should get a flu vaccine actually get one. In the new study, 46 percent of people said they'd get a flu shot, but 65 percent said they'd use a patch-based vaccine.