Who Invented the First Portable Drug Infusion Pump?
In 1973, Dean Kamen invented the first portable drug infusion pump while he was still an undergraduate physics student at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, Mass. This first main invention of Kamen would go on to have applications in many aspects of the medical field, not only for insulin delivery but also in drug administration having to do with chemotherapy and other endocrinological conditions. The first feasibly marketable insulin pump available to diabetics only came about in 1983, 20 years after Dr. Kadish came up with his prototype and about a decade after Kamen invented anything similar, but portable. Dean Kamen went on to be an influential innovator and businessman. He founded an organization dedicated to promoting innovation, For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), and received the National Medal of Technology in the United States, the highest honor for technological achievement, among a number of other awards. Although he never gradu
