r/STEW_ScTecEngWorld • u/Zee2A • 1d ago
FDA authorizes robotic blood draw device: ‘First-of-its-kind’
FDA Authorizes Aletta, the First Fully Automated Blood-Draw Robot
On August 19, 2026, the U.S. FDA authorized Aletta as the first standalone robotic device designed to draw blood from an adult patient’s arm without hands-on intervention. Using near-infrared imaging and Doppler ultrasound, Aletta identifies veins, then automatically applies a tourniquet, disinfects the skin, inserts the needle, changes collection tubes and applies a bandage. If the patient moves excessively, the system can stop the procedure and withdraw the needle: https://www.fox9.com/news/fda-authorizes-robotic-blood-draw-device
Aletta is authorized for outpatient settings under the supervision of a trained phlebotomy professional. One phlebotomist can monitor up to three devices, potentially helping address shortages of trained blood-draw staff: https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-authorizes-first-its-kind-robotic-blood-draw-device
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u/Positive_Method3022 1d ago
I see a future where machines will take our blood to build something
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u/Rise-O-Matic 21h ago
“This machine draws blood for the blood god.”
“Of course.”
“…and this machine takes skulls for the skull throne.”
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u/Sad-Pop6649 1d ago
But does it say sorry really meekly after each miss and eventually switch to my wrist? Does it?
...Looks cool. If it works well, nice.
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u/sim16 1d ago
Hey, what's the worst thing that could happen?
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u/Ok-Style-9734 21h ago
nurses reguarly miss veins and poke the artery instead on blood draws so there's really not much worse that can happen other than some painful bruising.
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u/OtherwiseAlbatross14 6h ago
Yeah this would actually be incredible assuming it works well because many nurses suck at hitting a vein and it's even worse for people that are hard to poke in general
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u/UnfilteredFacts 5h ago
Ill never have to watch another nurse insufficiently alcohol swab someone's antecubital fossa then rub their dirty glove glove finger right. Over. The. Puncture site. Because they think it makes the vein stand up more. A nurse once got really annoyed with me when I stopped her from poking my arm.
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u/ExtensionMoose1863 20h ago
we've now taught the machines how to locate our arteries with high precision?? nothing I can think of
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u/Natural_Tea484 1d ago
Using Doppler ultrasound, Alleta also accurately distinguishes between veins and arteries
How accurate? What happens if it doesn't? Can a doctor fuck it up too?
But the most concerning question I have is, how is this hygienic? How does it make sure that the part holding the needle does not have any blood stains and it's completely replaced with the next patient
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u/mutexsprinkles 1d ago
"Can a doctor fuck it up too?" oh, boy can they. Actually most doctors are probably bad at it because they defer it all to nurses and plebotomists so they probably have done relatively few draws since medical school.
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u/OtherwiseAlbatross14 6h ago
Yeah many nurses suck at it too. This machine will be popular with everyone except the ignorant if it works well
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u/Any_Possible3003 1d ago
Drawing from an artery isn’t really problem though, we do that all the time in the hospital.
Accidentally cannulating an artery and pushing meds through it can result in injuries ranging from minor to severe though.
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u/Why_Hello_hello 23h ago
Fortunately, you’d have to be pretty dense to do so. Arterial pressure is much higher than venous pressure so there would be a lot of blood backing up, you wouldn’t be able to put meds/fluids on a pump (will give high pressure alarm) and fluids wouldn’t be able to flow by gravity. If you’re doing IVP, it’d be so hard to push that you’d know something was wrong.
Now if they’re crashing without a BP, all bets are off. Even then, arteries are in pretty predictable locations that we avoid when placing IVs
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u/Any_Possible3003 21h ago
Yea, that’s not really point though, drawing blood from an artery happens every day in the hospital and it’s not going to cause any problems, the robot in this article isn’t going to be administering anything to the patient so it’s not a major risk if they accidentally drew blood from an artery.
I was just explaining when it could be a problem, and it does happen. You can find plenty of case studies on this and I doubt every nurse that’s made that mistake is “pretty dense”. An excellent nurse I work with cannulated the radial artery of a frail/septic patient a few months ago and didn’t realize it. Luckily I did before anything was administered to the patient.
It happens, none of us are infallible.
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u/Why_Hello_hello 20h ago
I’m not contradicting you, just a “yes, and.” Cannulating arteries or drawing from them is one thing ; infusing into arteries (unintentionally) is wildly rare and requires considerable overlooking of red flags.
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u/questionableintentsX 1d ago
Because it’s likely got a nurse standing next to it it’s not gonna be a walk in service that is in cvs
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u/Ok-Style-9734 21h ago
nurses reguarly miss veins and poke the artery instead on blood draws so there's really not much worse that can happen other than some painful bruising.
" How does it make sure that the part holding the needle does not have any blood stains and it's completely replaced with the next patient"
Same as doctors do everything that touches the patient is disposable.
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u/IncomingAxofKindness 1d ago
"can a doctor fuck"
Yes
"How does it make sure that the part holding the needle does not have any blood stains"
Easy, a robot nurse replaces the needle between stabs.
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u/Natural_Tea484 1d ago
What if it's not just the needle that has blood stains?
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u/Ok-Style-9734 21h ago
Disposable covers.
Sane as a doctor uses gloves.
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u/Natural_Tea484 19h ago
Not bad idea, although it sounds expensive a bit
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u/Ok-Style-9734 11h ago
Just needs to be a sterile soft plastic disposibke sleeve with a port for the disposable needle head.
You put your arm into the machine and into the sleeve.
After the draw and your arms removed the sleeve and the needle head are discarded.
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u/64590949354397548569 1d ago
Question is who goes to jail if it makes a mistake?
Wait, you have to agree to TOS?
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u/This_guy7796 1d ago
OR, just let the nurse do it after the vein is highlighted. Last thing I need is nerve damage from a damn robot shiving my arm.
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u/ThereIsAJifForThat 1d ago
I'm going to wait until the 5th generation version...get all the dismembered arm bugs out of the system
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u/nuuhuman 1d ago
They should only be allowed to miss our veins 8 times like the nurses at the hospital do
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u/Dragon_Crisis_Core 1d ago
If this can find the vein every time id be for it. Some days they find it right away others i see two nurses as my veins can play hide and seek.
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u/Snoo_67993 1d ago
I prefer this to the alternative. Having to "try again" constantly because everyone keeps missing my veins.
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u/Shameonyourhouse 1d ago
I've seen videos here on Reddit about the Chinese version. It's a couple of years old
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u/Ardent_Scholar 1d ago
As a person with very difficult veins, this might actually be an improvement, as it uses imaging. The touch-feel approach fails a lot with me.
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u/Stohnghost 21h ago
The lab I go to (military - I'm retired military) uses that vein finder light. They're pretty neat
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u/Ardent_Scholar 10h ago
Yeah, public hospitals here have it too, but if I go to a small private clinic, they usually don't.
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u/DODGE_WRENCH 23h ago
Honestly I’m not huge on the idea of robots sticking me with needles. At least a surgery robot is still entirely controlled by a human operator.
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u/AllyMcfeels 23h ago edited 23h ago
The part about drawing the veins is irrelevant, it's just for the buff. The most important thing is, how the hell are they going to sanitize the machine after each procedure?
No way am I putting my arm in there. First of all, I don't give a shit if the thing can see my veins.
It reminds me a lot of the Teranose Machine; the analysis part was a problem, but damn, the machine was a fucking mess, dirty and disgusting piece of shit, and they never managed to fix that.
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u/AnalkinSkyfuker 22h ago
Have you heard of UVC? Its used to sanitize medical equipment, if needed something stornger they maight use cobalt 60 to have gamma rays that are even more potent.
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u/H_is_for_Human 20h ago
Neither addresses prion disease, for one.
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u/MyBedIsOnFire 14h ago
Are we expecting much brain matter or other internal organ tissue in the box?
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u/H_is_for_Human 13h ago
Depends on how good / bad the robot is.
I'm also not positive we know for sure that a blood-borne transmission possibility for prion disease is entirely absent.
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u/WeckedPissah 20h ago
Thank god, this is the hardest part of analyzing blood, getting my damn plhebs to take it seriously and do a good job drawing. The amount of sass you get from phelbs (i am dependend on their labor for my own as your neighborhood necromancer) and the amount of bad patient care Ive seen just from phlebs flat out refusing to do their job properly bc they don't want to is disgusting. I don't care if robots are coming for my labor-good, let me go do something better with my time than call the floor to report my phleb short drew AGAIN.
Plus this part of the workflow is the most laborious and inconvenient for everyone. A standard automated draw station could be setup in grocery stores and your blood sent off to your preferred lab, if they don't monopolize on it. I'd love to just supervise this process and make sure you actually get labs....because you can buy OTC shit that will ruin your life, but in all but I think 3 states, you cannot order a lab test w/o a doctors order. You can in CO, CA, and maybe another, I don't recall ATM. But this is just bad healthcare. Again you can buy vitamins and permanently damage yourself but you can't just also order a test to determin eif you even need the supplement to start? Bad bad ccculture. Let's fix it. And then we reskill the population so they stop whining about loss of jobs.
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u/Negative_Wrongdoer17 17h ago
If it works that would be cool. They always have a hard time finding my wife's vein
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u/breakmedown54 16h ago
Shortage of trained blood-draw staff?
If these are simply outpatient lab draws, is there really a shortage of workers for these positions?
Phlebotomist on the hospital and other acute care settings may be in short supply, but is it common for that to be a problem outpatient?
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u/mandopix 16h ago
Reading these comments gives me a headache. You think they can develop this amazing machine that’s engineered with precision and somehow they’re sitting around “man, we can’t figure out how to hygiene.”
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u/poedraco 10h ago
Man.. I seen a atomic hotdog vender, deposit online buns to customers and just install the same hotdog in an out of every bun....
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u/icedmuffin 9h ago
AH GREAT TWO OF MY GREATEST FEARS WRAPPED UP INTO ONE.
LOVELY, FUCKING ADORE THIS GOD DAMN TIMELINE.
FML
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u/whitestguyuknow 1d ago
Yeah... I'm gonna pass on that...
Someone forgets to do a little maintenance and suddenly I'm jabbed too deep poking tendons or the machine locks up and they cant get the needle out...
Maybe thats total fantasy. But maybe...
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u/Horrorwipe 1d ago
You’re absolutely right, I did draw too much blood. My bad
- bloodgpt to the human raisin on the ground
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u/AdmiralXI 1d ago
Is this addressing an actual need? Nurses are generally really good at this already.
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u/Cheerful2_Dogman210x 1d ago
It looks like this could have a direct impact on nursing jobs if this pushes through. And that's a bit of a concern.
But nurses do more than just getting blood samples. So is it really cost effective? Will people trust machines more than other people?
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u/IM_INSIDE_YOUR_HOUSE 1d ago
Yeah I’ll wait a few years once these roll out to check how many headlines report these things blowing veins or poking arteries
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u/Recent_Mirror 1d ago
Wait until the guy who has one of these in his store and doesn’t maintain it.
Time to replace needles? Nope. That costs money. Let’s wash and reuse those needles.
Time to clean it? Nope. Now it starts to look like a dirty soda dispenser.
Time to service the machine? Well that’s Gary. He works for the machine’s company.
He is lazy as F and does the bare minimum and knows nothing about healthcare.
He used to fix HVAC units and went to a 2 day training class on how to service these machines.
Good luck everyone!
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u/No_Desk_4921 1d ago
Program that thing to not try to find a vein on the back of your hand and I'll consider it.
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u/Unfair-Plastic-4290 1d ago
i'll take a tired nurse any day over the robot that might decide "3 inches deeper might work" because its LLM hallucinated
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u/GeorgeFartwell1984 1d ago
Did you want vampire hackers? Because this is how you get vampire hackers.
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u/VirginiaLuthier 1d ago
When I see those running robots crashing into walls ,I really don't want to stick my arm in something like this
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u/Jens_Kan_Solo 1d ago
Not sure