Patients at Cleveland-based University Hospitals may soon be alleviated from fear of needles and blood draws due to a partnership with Velano Vascular, a firm that developed a Food and Drug Administration-approved alternative system.
Velano's system uses a disposable device called PIVO that attaches to an IV catheter and collects blood through a tube.
"Within a hospital setting, the blood draw is one of the most common yet most critical aspects of patient care," Cheryl O'Malley, vice president of medical-surgical service for UH Case Medical Center in Cleveland. "Blood collection practices and technologies have not materially changed in decades, making it an area ripe for innovation."
In April 2015, Gizmodo reported another device, developed by Madison, Wis.-based Tasso with a $3 million grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, planned to seek FDA approval late last year. The Tasso device circumvented needlesticks for blood draws by attaching to skin on a patients arm and slowly drawing microscopic droplets of blood from superficial capillaries, collecting enough for a sample within two minutes.
Another company, Seventh Sense Biosystems out of Boston, has a device to serve similar purposes in development. University Hospitals is the first major academic medical center in the U.S. to offer Velano's technology.
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