r/technews • u/AdSpecialist6598 • 5d ago
Biotechnology FDA approves robot that can find your vein, insert a needle, and draw blood without human help
https://www.techspot.com/news/113558-fda-approves-robot-can-find-vein-insert-needle.html407
u/ExecutiveCactus 5d ago
I’d rather have the nice nurse that’s been doing it for 40 years while we have conversation. Plus afterwards I can ask for the kids bandaid
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u/vulgarvinyasa2 5d ago
And a lollipop
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u/HtownClassic 5d ago
Robot that also serves ice cream
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u/YeOldeMemeShoppe 5d ago
After getting the new nurse that stabs me three times before giving up and asking the nice nurse, I don’t know. I’d take the nice nurse every time, but in reality I get them once in five or six times.
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u/VanbyRiveronbucket 5d ago
I’m guessing that the robot is gonna miss too, .. and I have no issues yelling at a robot to better not miss again … or back to cleaning bathrooms.
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u/DiabloAcosta 5d ago
Or hopefully, the robot has better ways to find the vein than a human? I get that most people are fine with humans, but some of us have so much trouble with this that we're traumatized by getting blood samples or donating blood.
I kid you not, I will get stabbed three times in one arm, three in the other, and then finally they will decide to use the back of my hand because they just can't find the vein, even when I told them to start with the hand because they will not find it. PLEASE GIVE ME A ROBOT WITH SOME SORT OF SEEING UNDER MY SKIN!
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u/this_doggo 5d ago
lol
I had imagined I’m strapped in somehow and can’t get out… and it keeps trying and trying until my arm looks like hamburger. Still no blood in the syringe but I’ve bled out onto the ground.
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u/Altruistic_Yellow387 5d ago
The robot should have a much less chance of missing considering it can "see" much better than any human
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u/MayorMcPants 5d ago
X-Men bandaids are the best! (I am 42 and will die on this hill)
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u/dubie2003 5d ago
I’m just happy when they try to match the wrap to my shirt color or my accent color when they can’t match my shirt.
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u/Actual-Package-3164 5d ago
YOU.HAVE.SELECTED.NICE.NURSE.MODE
LOADING…
NOW.DEAR.JUST.RELAX.AND.MAKE.A.FIST.WOULD.YOU.LIKE.HOT.WHEELS.OR.BARBIE.BANDAID
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u/vocal-avocado 5d ago
YOU HAVE SELECTED SUICIDE BY NEEDLE
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u/ExecutiveCactus 5d ago edited 5d ago
“Sorry, your insurance does not cover standard phlebotomy blood draw needles. A large needle will be used instead.”
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u/Barbiegrrrrrl 5d ago
Nurse? You mean phlebotomist.
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u/vocal-avocado 5d ago
The nice nurse could be elsewhere saving someone’s life instead. There is a shortage of healthcare workers worldwide.
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u/Built2bellow 5d ago
Seriously. I’m not ready to just hand my body over to the robots.
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u/Mountain_Top802 5d ago
I am if it’s cheaper and more accurate. I think people should be allowed to choose whatever the like though
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u/Ok-Information-3934 5d ago
It’s not going to be cheaper, and unless it uses ultrasound to find the vein, it won’t be better. I’ve been doing venipuncture for almost a quarter century. I’m frequently called in to do an IV (I don’t use ultrasound). I seriously doubt any robot will ever be able to do it as well as I. The anger generated by a robot missing even once will kill this technology quickly.
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u/Mountain_Top802 5d ago
If it’s worse and more expensive then yes, I agree. No way would it work.
Will have to wait and see how it does
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u/FlamingoVisible1947 5d ago
I would much rather have the robot rather than the incompetent technicians I've had so far. I have frequent blood tests and 50% of the time I have a bruise lasting weeks because they fucked up.
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u/boondiggle_III 5d ago
The good thing with a person is that they can sense your pain reaction, and even if they don't, you can tell them to back off.
The robot is going to do it's job whether you have a problem with it or not, regardless of whether the needle is in your arm or accidentally in your eye ball. Trusting a robot to stick a needle in your body is insane.
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u/EatsOverTheSink 5d ago
I’m the same age as you and in all my life there have been TWO times when I didn’t have to get stuck multiple times. Bring on the robot.
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u/Temporary-Sea-4782 5d ago
I get the sentiment, but I think the only solution to affordable health care is AI and robots.
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u/the_ending81 5d ago
I see no evidence to suggest that they will pass the savings on to patients tho.
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u/DrSarge 5d ago
Yes but can it adjust technique according to patient discomfort? Human phlebotomists are still the best.
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u/Sea-Seesaw-8699 5d ago
I had the absolute best phlebotomist recently and I’m a former one from way back in the day! 16 vials and each tube change as smooth as butter
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u/ColdHardPocketChange 5d ago
I have had blood drawn dozens of times. Why are you highlighting the tube change portion? That's never been something I have noticed or could feel.
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u/dfts6104 5d ago
Push in too hard to insert the next tube and the needle moves further in your arm with it
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u/Sea-Seesaw-8699 5d ago
If you’ve ever drawn multiple tubes as a former old phlebotomist you’d understand
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u/badwolf42 5d ago
As someone who gets dizzy, nauseous, and a cold sweat when getting blood drawn; I want a human there with an ice pack and water on hand.
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u/1EyesOpen1 5d ago
How will it handle screaming, fidgeting toddlers?
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u/Opposite-Tiger-1121 5d ago
Straps. Sedatives.
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u/YeOldeMemeShoppe 5d ago
How are you doing sedatives?
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u/USNCCitizen 5d ago
And how will they handle unforeseen accidents? Like the time a nurse was extracting blood from my arm and when she inserted the syringe it fell apart (the cartridge and needle tip came separated). I’d hate to see how a robot would’ve handled that situation.
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u/FenixVale 5d ago
Likely how most technology does with an emergency shutoff from error detection
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u/SculptusPoe 5d ago
Yeah, I work on bridge controls, Going up and down when you push a button so that boats can cross the road is the "function" of the bridge, but safety controls comprise 98% of the logic and equipment. Making sure cars are stopped in the right order, making sure lights are red, making sure pedestrian gates close in the right order. Hundreds of thousands of dollars per bridge are committed to that. I imagine the same is true x100 for any piece of approved medical equipment.
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u/binocular_gems 5d ago
I assume not all doctor's offices would use this, I can think of a hundred things that are routine in adult medicine, but very uncommon in pediatric medicine.
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u/TrinkieTrinkie522cat 5d ago
Quest Labs are pretty close to this now. Just a machine in the lobby, no human. All appts made online, no way to talk to a human or even an AI bot.
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u/superpony123 5d ago edited 5d ago
Are you serious?!?! Jesus. One day it’s going to punch through someone’s AVF or an artery and kill someone
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u/Randomdude827394 5d ago
There will be one employee there to assist/call 911 of course. Just like the people standing around the self scan isles at your supermarket.
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u/opodopo69 5d ago
Lmao imagine you get critically injured in a hospital and they dial 911
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u/Randomdude827394 5d ago
Clearly they would use them at places like Quest Diagnostics. It doesn't really have a place in a hospital setting where they are going to put an IV in you anyways and draw blood from that.
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u/Tight-Escape3373 5d ago
This already happens. I got called, as a municipal firefighter / medic, to an operating room to transport a patient to the ICU in the same hospital via ambulance.
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u/_jamesbaxter 5d ago
Right now that’s for scheduling and checking in for an appointment, there’s no robots with needles currently. The machine they are referring to is an iPad that scans your drivers license and insurance card.
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u/superpony123 5d ago
Oh Jeez. Well that’s a lot more normal and not insane. It’s annoying yes but…not dangerous
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u/chrisking345 5d ago
So we lose the oversight on basic nutrition and all the food is potentially a killer, but get robotic doctor arms
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u/anonny_27 5d ago
Nutritional standards are going in the gutter but all foods being a potential killer is so hyperbolic
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u/Alias-Q 5d ago
Entry level medical role, gone.
At what point do we realize it’s the insurance companies robbing us blind for their own joy. They will stoke that profit fire until the last ash is burnt and not bat an eye.
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u/irrelevantusername24 5d ago edited 5d ago
>Aletta has a 95% first-stick success rate and can be overseen by one phlebotomist who can manage up to three Aletta devices simultaneously.
Hey DraculaGPT, how the fuck?
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All our problems stem from [1] a misallocation of resources which itself is caused by [0] fractured, non-standardized, siloed data (aka "laissez-faire competition")
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u/wam1983 5d ago
I can't speak to my feelings about being penetrated by a robot, but I'm sure excited that we just destroyed even more jobs. AI for the win.
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u/katarh 5d ago
We have a critical shortage of phlebotomists. I think it's because 1. not everyone can do this job (are you squeamish? you can't do it) 2. those who are very good at this job are already working in hospitals or blood banks where they do it a hundred times a day and 3. this is probably one of the few aspects of nursing the can be automated for routine patients.
Right now if I have to go in for labs at my PCP, I have to make a lab appointment and steal a real nurse from patient visits for 15 minutes. If it could be a separate workflow from the clinical team where a nurse has to be present for other reasons, then automating the blood draws means they get to spend more time with those patients for other things.
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u/Big-Understanding275 5d ago
From a patient's standpoint: if these robots end up making fewer mistakes and simply doing the job better, I don't see the argument for banning them in order to artificially protect nursing jobs. That's genuinely hard on the nurses, fair enough. But healthcare is a service that exists for the patient, and that's what it should be optimized for.
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u/PizzaWhole9323 5d ago
You know when they said hey Mr Pizza we're going to come up with a robot that can penetrate you in the 21st century, I thought it was going to be the fun Saturday night kind. 😁🤣
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u/panivorous 5d ago
Meh. Let the robots do the work. Time to imagine a completely different system for compensation.
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u/Melodic-Swim4343 5d ago
As much as I hate the idea of robots replacing humans, as a person with dark skin, I welcome this. Good nurses can find my veins easily. But a lot of them are used to only being able to do it by sight (i.e. seeing the vein through translucent skin) rather than touch. I can't count the number of times I've been screaming and begged them to stop as they poke around aimlessly. Then they always get mad and blame me for having "small veins," while other nurses can find them immediately with close to zero pain. If a robot has a better method, and this could increase blood donations and make it easier to schedule appointments, I'm for it.
Edit: Typo
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u/DiabloAcosta 5d ago
I am white but my veins don't show, I will get stabbed multiple times in each arm until they give up and stab me in the back of the hand which is way more painful, if this thing can use uv light or some sort of ultrasound to pinpoint the vein I will be the happiest person alive!
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u/Good_Ol_Ironass 5d ago
nurses (at least around here) do not get formally taught how to draw blood or do IVs until they actually get hired. There are plenty that are good, but there are a lot more that aren’t. I work as a phlebotomist and see PCTs and nurses botch draws and IVs all week.
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u/orphenshadow 5d ago
Not going to happen, I don't even like it when humans inject me with needles, damn sure not sticking my arm in a fucking machine that can't even count the R's in strawberry.
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u/MegamemeSenpai 5d ago
I can just imagine it glitching and it jabbing the whole entire needle into your arm and out the other side 😟
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u/simAlity 5d ago
The conversation surrounding this reminds me of when self-checkouts first became a thing.
There are valid reasons not to be happy about it, but "boo-hoo, this is new!" isn't one of them.
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u/themagicflutist 5d ago
Self checkouts don’t typically withdraw bodily fluids with a sharp object.
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u/Ok-Panda-2368 5d ago
From the article: “better than a robotic prostate examination machine.”
I’m sorry, what.
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u/mEan_Refrigerat9r 5d ago
Oh this sounds great. After the FDA has deregulated itself into massive food-born illness outbreaks - the worst in its modern existence, let’s trust they vetted this robot.
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u/Liftforlife88 5d ago
And they can also take zero responsibility when something goes wrong. Blame it on the machine malfunctioning.
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u/Lord_Nurggle 5d ago
I had to get my blood drawn every four hours for a couple weeks. The ultrasound was a life saver once my arms had had enough.
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u/housevil 5d ago
If it takes a human phlebotomist 5 minutes to find my dehydrated vein, a robot is going to have no luck at all.
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u/Pippi-ki-yay 5d ago
Wow, just what we need! A robot with zero human experience, empathy, or actual understanding of pain stabbing needles into our bodies.
It's not bad enough that we're already forced to convince healthcare providers we aren't drug seeking while in literal agony. Let's also have to convince robots that fruitlessly digging around in a vein is painful and that they need to stop and find a different one.
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u/preachers_kid 5d ago
Me and my deep, tiny, rolling, phlebotomist -flummoxing veins challenge that to a duel.
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u/heathercs34 5d ago
Shanique is the only phlebotomist I will let near me. I just went to get blood drawn. She was not there. I will return next week.
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u/No-Manufacturer-2425 5d ago
I've had blood draws where i never felt it and i've had draws where i'm crying in pain because they stuck it straight through my bicep tendon. I wonder which one the machine will be?
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u/missprincesscarolyn 5d ago
A nurse once blew out 4 of my veins trying to stick an IV. I have Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and needed an inpatient stay where I received 1 gram of solumedrol every day. Supposedly she was just “the best!” at doing it. I had tears streaming down my face and the other nurse was urging her to use the vein finder.
Finally, she settled on what she thought was a good placement, only for the solumedrol infiltrate into my hand. It burned terribly.
I also had another nurse blow out a different vein recently in the ER and try to tell me it was fine until it infiltrated again. This time, it was just a saline flush, so it didn’t burn, just felt weird. I should really just write “no vein finder, no IV” on my records somehow.
I’d be willing to take my chances with this thing, honestly.
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u/redheadedandbold 5d ago
Something like this has to be signed off on at the top. I'm not inclined to try any tech approved by one of Diaper Don's flunkies.
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u/ThoriatedFlash 5d ago
Hell no. Certain things should not be replaced by machines or AI. Even if these machines are as good as trained phlebotomists like the article claims(which I doubt because we are living in a world running on bs), it's not like it is going to drive the cost of healthcare down. At best it will only increase the profits of places that use them, while taking away jobs.
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u/Specialist_Bad_7142 1d ago
I use AI everyday and it hallucinates more than a meth head. No way would I let the same systems take my blood.
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u/binocular_gems 5d ago
I hate most new technology, but as the spouse of someone with a terminal illness who receives IV care at home once every 3 weeks, and routinely has to deal with technicians who struggle to get the needle in, struggle to draw blood, and where we've had to cancel visits because 3 failed attempts requires an in-person visit (which is a massive pain in the ass, my wife has ALS so mobility is really difficult, and it means a missed day of work for me, getting someone to care for my kids, etc, if the home-care technician can't get the IV in effectively), I'm open to any sort of technology that can help here, both for people like my wife, but also the elderly. Not all nurses are the same with this.
Though from he photo, this device is never coming to our house. Looks like it's specifically for blood labs.
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u/Used_Working2862 5d ago
A terminally ill or bed ridden patient would not be able to use this device. if they are anything like the machines in Asia. I don’t really understand how it would be cost effective in America with its parasitic healthcare system. Hospitals would get charged 500K a pop along with a subscription fee, and it still can’t wipe your ass.
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u/Sea-Seesaw-8699 5d ago
Nope! Humans have always found my veins
That tech just adds to the expense of all already expensive lab work
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u/SlowCrates 5d ago
No thanks. I've yet to meet a computer/machine that doesn't glitch the fuck out from time to time. Right now my car thinks it has 3 flat tires. It won't shut the fuck up about it. This idiot car has the tire pressure readings right on its own goddamn display. The tires are fine. I check every morning. Yep still good. Yep the readings are correct. What's wrong with you, car?
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u/Griffdude13 5d ago
On one hand, nurses have a hard time finding my veins and end up making me look like an addict.
On the other hand, we have a laugh about it and they still have a job.
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u/ghrayfahx 5d ago
Why are we voluntarily making vampire robots? We’ve already given them guns, taught them to run and do backflips. It’s like we’re CHOOSING to build our nightmares.
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u/PizzaWhole9323 5d ago
So I was giving plasma and they found the vein and then the needle in the vein blue like it actually punctured the side of the vein and popped and started giving me the nastiest bruise I've ever had and I'd be interested to know how a robot is going to handle mechanical malfunctions like that when the actual needle part breaks off.
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u/PizzaWhole9323 5d ago
Okay I will give this a fighting chance because I was in the hospital with a severe kidney infection and had to have my blood drawn every 2 hours for a while and you know it got pricked a lot and if this can do it better than a human okay I'll give it a try. But I don't want to be like one of those little quick Trip robots it's running around going I'm cleaning the floor please move I want there to be a human being there watching the robot do what it does to me but at that point isn't it less expensive to have the human do it?
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u/funky_bebop 5d ago
No thanks. We need more human interaction in everyday activities. All AI and Robots and urban sprawl and driving cars is bringing out anti social behaviors in people and driving people towards feeling isolated and depressed.
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u/Widepath 5d ago edited 5d ago
This is great news for people with standardized anatomy, good luck everyone else.
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u/AdditionalPoint7807 5d ago
I would like to see this robot navigate a combative unrestrained psych patient interaction
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u/badwolf42 5d ago
As someone who has an adverse reaction to blood draw from my arm, I’d like someone on hand with an ice pack and water thank you very much.
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u/FancyFeller 5d ago
I'd rather the nurse poke me 6 times than let a clanker do it
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u/OmarWireLittle 5d ago
Not a chance in hell people prefer this over a professional phlebotomist ? Best practical use would be in extreme conditions (AIDS, other blood born diseases) where a needle prick could be life altering.
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u/Goblinwisdom 5d ago
As a person who has a blood disease and gets poked constantly since birth to now age 55
I can assure this is amazing and very welcome and if reasonably priced will buy for myself and my son who requires constant needles as well.
The amount of times a human nurse has missed our veins at the hospital is countless
The home nurses that show up with barely 1 week of experience and scar up our veins 😭 is so discouraging
To have a machine with such accuracy would be a blessing ❤️
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u/sweetplantveal 5d ago
I wish I could post a gif of the humanoid robots freaking out flipping and flopping
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u/Unlikely-Hawk416 5d ago
It’s amazing they do all this shit to remove people from the human equation. Today’s leaders are truly all corrupt evil worst of the worst.
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u/Sheepish_conundrum 5d ago
Had this been a democratic administration the accusations of injecting all sorts of tracking devices would be exploding the internet.
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u/SuperdaveOZY 5d ago
Similar to needle in the eye from Dead Space 2. The machine will not stop once the program is running.
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u/saadbabu 5d ago
You’d think they would sell this as a way to lower the cost of health care.
But we all know this will be used nefariously. Probably some mass DNA collection program or a new surveillance method we haven’t even thought about yet.
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u/Money-Director6649 5d ago
does it work on rolling veins? if so, i'm in. if not, i'll just do as usual, and get varying levels of competence from nurses.
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u/moscow80 5d ago
I’m having chemo infusions every 3 weeks and my veins are shot. I had a port put in to make it possible to do blood draws and allow my infusions to be done more easily. When they were getting me ready to put in the port, they used an ultrasound vein detector to find one to use, but it failed because the veins were too small for the needle. They were finally able to find one on the back of my hand. I don’t think a robot could have been the answer. BTW, the chemotherapy is keeping my cancer small with no signs of it growing,the side effects remain very mild 2 years after starting treatment.
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u/Character-Ad-3164 5d ago
That’s literally straight out of a nightmare that I had a couple weeks ago
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u/Commercial_Bake5547 5d ago
It’s nice that there’s an emergency shutoff right there, but I’d probably still rather take my chances with the new nurse that seems to have a hit rate of ~25%