Robots could soon be sampling your blood instead of humans

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) last month showcased next-gen solutions to a number of issues. It is not surprising that scientists have made strong inroads in robotics and artificial intelligence to benefit patients and the healthcare system around the world.

It turns out that researchers have now managed to create a robot that will be able to do something as basic as blood sampling.

Researchers from Mount Sinai Hospital and Rutgers University have come up with the robot which can apparently see under the skin and can help reduce problems like infections and thrombosis.

The machine can use its built-in ultrasound technology to guide the placement of the needle, while the entire system also includes a module to handle samples and a centrifuge-based blood analyzer.

It is being said that in cases of easy access veins, the success rate of drawing blood by the robot is 97 per cent, while it overall success rate is 87 per cent.

As of now, the device is a prototype and there is scope for researchers to improve its success rate so that one day the machine could possibly be used in ambulances, emergency rooms, etc.

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Venipuncture, which is basically the act of inserting a needle into a vein to get a blood sample, is world's most common clinical procedure.

In the US itself, more than 1.4 billion venipunctures are performed annually, but as per previous studies, clinicians fail in 27 per cent of the cases wherein the vein of the patient is not visible, 40 per cent clinicians fail with patients without palpable veins and 60 per cent failure is in the cases of emaciated patients.

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The lead author of the research is Josh Leipheimer, a biomedical engineering doctoral student in the Rutgers University.

"The device can help clinicians get blood samples safely, reliably and quickly preventing unnecessary pain and complications in patients from multiple needle insertion attempts," Leipheimer said.