Credit score: Unsplash/CC0 Public Area
The apply of drawing blood has modified little or no over the many years. It seems to be about the identical now because it did 50 years in the past.
That course of, nevertheless, could also be about to get a contemporary makeover. A number of well being methods throughout the U.S.—together with Northwestern Medication—are gearing as much as attempt a brand new method of drawing blood: utilizing a robotic.
Northwestern is amongst a number of well being methods which have agreed to be a part of a medical trial of a tool that automates blood assortment. Northwestern and the corporate behind the gadget say it has the potential to make blood attracts extra environment friendly, whereas serving to well being methods take care of a scarcity of phlebotomists, who’re folks skilled to gather blood samples.
“This all ensures high accuracy and high reliability, and with such precision it reduces any pain and discomfort associated with a normal blood draw,” mentioned Bob Gerberich, chief industrial officer for North America for Vitestro, the Netherlands-based firm that makes the gadget, which known as Aletta.
Here is the way it works: The affected person sits in a chair by the five-foot-tall Aletta gadget, and locations an arm on a sloped armrest that is a part of the gadget. The affected person then presses a begin button, and a tourniquet tightens across the affected person’s arm, above the elbow, to make the blood draw simpler.
The Aletta then makes use of infrared mild to find the veins. The gadget sprays the affected person’s arm with alcohol to wash it, and an AI-driven doppler ultrasound probe on a robotic arm helps choose a vein and decide needle placement. The Aletta then inserts the needle into the vein and collects blood into tubes.
When it is performed, the Aletta applies a bandage to the realm the place the needle pierced the pores and skin.
In contrast to with a standard blood draw, the affected person doesn’t see the needle go into the arm nor the tubes of blood. The whole course of takes about two minutes.
“With this device they never see the needle and they never see or experience or feel the blood tubes being changed,” Gerberich mentioned. “That really helps with those types of patients that are ordinarily squeamish.”
The Aletta has a 95% success charge with regards to drawing usable blood on the primary try, and the machine could be particularly helpful for sufferers who may in any other case be tough to efficiently stick, based on the corporate.
The gadget is already accepted to be used in Europe for sufferers aged 16 and older, and the corporate plans to quickly search approval from the U.S. Meals and Drug Administration for its industrial use within the U.S.
Northwestern is one in all three websites within the U.S. which have agreed to make use of the gadget as a part of a multi-center medical trial, Gerberich mentioned. The corporate isn’t but releasing the names of two different well being methods, and is hoping so as to add one or two extra methods as properly, he mentioned.
The Aletta will possible be despatched to Northwestern subsequent 12 months, Gerberich mentioned.
Every well being system will get a number of Aletta gadgets for a time frame earlier than the gadgets are moved on to different places collaborating within the trial, with a objective of getting suggestions on the usage of the gadgets within the U.S. and exhibiting how they carry out, mentioned Toon Overbeeke, CEO and co-founder of Vitestro.
Northwestern hopes the gadget permits it to make sure the standard of blood samples whereas coping with an ongoing scarcity of phlebotomists, mentioned Dr. Gregory Retzinger, medical director of Pathology Medical Providers at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
Although “human involvement can certainly be reassuring to a patient,” it may be tough to search out sufficient phlebotomists, Retzinger mentioned. “We don’t have enough people to draw the blood, so I had to look for a solution.”
Employment of phlebotomists is anticipated to develop 8% between 2023 and 2033—about double the expansion charge for all occupations throughout that interval, based on the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The bureau initiatives about 19,600 openings for phlebotomists annually, on common, over that point. Makes an attempt to achieve the Nationwide Phlebotomy Affiliation and several other Chicago space faculties that practice phlebotomists for his or her ideas on the know-how have been unsuccessful this week.
The gadget additionally has a near-zero charge of hemolysis throughout blood assortment, which is when pink blood cells break down throughout or after the gathering course of, making a pattern unusable, based on the corporate. Usually, with conventional blood attracts, the hemolysis charge of blood samples could be as excessive as 3% to 4%, based on printed analysis.
“You have to have a good sample in order to have meaningful data that can be interpreted on behalf of the patient,” Retzinger mentioned.
It has not but been decided what the gadget will value as soon as it is out there commercially within the U.S. However Gerberich mentioned well being methods ought to see financial savings over the expense of conventional phlebotomy. The corporate expects that one well being care employee, skilled on use the Aletta, will be capable to oversee as much as three of the gadgets without delay.
The corporate additionally expects that the gadgets will enhance affected person expertise. For instance, sufferers in want of blood attracts may see extra out there appointments and/or lowered wait instances as a result of well being methods utilizing the machines will be capable to draw blood from extra sufferers extra rapidly, Gerberich mentioned.
“The main purpose of the device is really to enhance the quality of the samples and improve the patient experience,” Overbeeke mentioned.
2025 Chicago Tribune. Distributed by Tribune Content material Company, LLC.
Quotation:
Would you let a robotic draw your blood? Northwestern amongst well being methods attempting new gadget (2025, March 20)
retrieved 20 March 2025
from https://medicalxpress.com/information/2025-03-robot-blood-northwestern-health-device.html
This doc is topic to copyright. Aside from any honest dealing for the aim of personal research or analysis, no
half could also be reproduced with out the written permission. The content material is supplied for data functions solely.
