Your next blood draw, done by a robot
Besides your interest in medtech, we can’t claim to know very much about you, reader. Yet, we’re pretty confident in assuming that you don’t love blood draws.
What if, with the help of a robot, your blood draws could be a little more comfortable—and over much quicker? If you’re based in Europe, that future may be coming sooner than you think.
The story: Dutch startup Vitestro published successful trial results of its robotic blood-draw system. The Autonomous Blood Drawing Optimization and Performance Testing (ADOPT) study is expected to result in a European device approval by the end of 2024.
Goodbye to phlebotomists?: Not quite. However, the study does report promising success rates and user evaluation. Vitestro hopes the system may help ease nursing workloads and help address clinical staffing concerns.
- The system drew blood with a 95% ‘first-stick’ success rate, comparable to the average manual venipuncture success rate which ranges from 93–97%.
- Researchers reported a 98% procedure acceptance rate among trial participants, with 83% of participants saying their experience with the robot was less painful or comparable to regular blood draws.
Why this matters: Vitestro hopes their device will save hospitals time and resources, particularly by helping ease nursing workloads and help address clinical staffing concerns.
- The procedure took a median time of one minute 49 seconds, down from the average five-minute service time of manual phlebotomy.
- Plus, the prospect of speedier and more comfortable blood draws may help reduce blood draw-related anxiety, which can lead to medical appointment avoidance. This concern is especially acute when it comes to pediatric patients:
Of course, a robotic blood draw doesn’t include the comforting conversation and hand squeeze that skilled phlebotomists and nurses know to offer nervous patients. We’ll be interested to see how robotic blood draws do or don’t account for blood draw anxiety as these devices become available in the near future.
What’s next?: Vitestro recently raised a €20 million funding round to support the commercialization of their blood draw device. Assuming successful CE device approval, multiple Vitestro systems have been pre-ordered by European hospitals and are being prepared for deployment.