If you're scared of the needle because you have difficult-to-locate veins there's some good news - the Australian Red Cross are deploying a new technology which will find veins easily, negating the need to poke people relentlessly to find the right spot during blood donation.
The Australian Red Cross Blood Service is using a device that uses vein visualization technology, which projects an image of the vein onto the arm using near infrared technology. The technology operates based on the principle that veins carry plenty of deoxygenated hemoglobin. The hemoglobin is capable of absorbing the near infrared light that is emitted and a donor's veins glow in green.
The device created by the Australian Red Cross gathers this information and uses it to project the image on a prospective donor's skin. To cater to differences that may exist in individual donors, the device has settings to adhere to the same.
The purpose of the study is to discover if this new procedure will decrease the anxiety donors may suffer from if they have difficult to find veins. The Blood Service also perseveres to discover if the process will increase the comfort during donation and make a donor want to donate in the future as well.
For the trial, nearly 300 first-time blood donors, as well as 600 previous donors aged between 18 and 30 years will be tested using the new device that has been developed by two separate Australian companies.
"At the moment we're just trialing the technology to determine its effectiveness and see what donors think of it and whether it improves their experience in any way," says Angela King, a Blood Service researcher.
The staffs at the Donor Center have apparently found the machine useful when the vein was not perceptible to the naked eye.
If the vein detection machine elicits a positive response from the donors, then it could go on to become a permanent fixture in several hospitals. With the new device, Red Cross intends to encourage more people to donate and retain individuals who have already donated blood.
The research results were slated to be presented at a conference in Philadelphia.
