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SYDNEY, Australia — Those who want to donate blood but have veins that are hard to find may soon find relief.
A new near-infrared device is being used to map patient’s veins and then project an image of it onto their skin at Australian Red Cross Clinics, according to the organization. Researchers are in the process of conducting a study involving 900 donors to determine whether the technology should be rolled out to other clinics.
“Vein visualisation technology uses near infrared technology to project an image of the vein onto the skin,” senior researcher Dan Waller wrote. “Veins have a lot of deoxygenated haemoglobin that absorbs near infrared light and the device is able to use this information to project the image. The machines have settings to manage individual differences.”
A Q&A session about the technology can be viewed online.
