Business Journal of Jacksonville:
Shands uses new machine to locate veins
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
by Dave Strupp, Staff writer
Excerpts from the article.
DOWNTOWN -- Nurses at Shands Jacksonville are getting under their patients' skin -- visually that is -- with a new piece of equipment that displays veins.
The VeinViewer Imaging System, created by Memphis, Tenn.-based biotechnology developer Luminetx Corp., shows subcutaneous veins through a projection on the skin.
The $25,000 machine will be the first of its kind used in a hospital in the Southeast, according to Shands. The hospital received funding for the VeinViewer from a donation by Children's Miracle Network, which raises funds to provide state-of-the-art medical equipment to area hospitals.
The VeinViewer is a mobile machine with a modular design that allows doctors and nurses to scan from the foot to the arm.
"It gives [users] the capability to do what their eyes can't do," said Miles Curro of Ilex Medical Inc., a distributor for Luminetx. "It gives [users] a roadmap of the patient's veins."
An infrared light highlights the red blood cells beneath the skin, then a digital video camera captures the light reflected back. An image processing unit adds contrast until finally a digital image projector displays the real-time images on the patient's skin, making it easier to locate the veins and eliminate the need for multiple needle punctures.
The VeinViewer technology will be especially helpful with children and cancer patients, who often have weakened veins from chemotherapy. There will be no extra charge to patients for using the VeinViewer.
The technology used in the VeinViewer only allows the user to view veins that are a quarter-inch beneath the skin, so it is not possible yet to view a large organ mass, though several new generations of technology are in the pipeline at Luminetx, said Brown Dudley, associate director of marketing. …"The VeinViewer will become a standard of care among hospitals," he said.
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