Needle phobia, also known as trypanophobia, is a common form of anxiety disorder, afflicting nearly 10-percent of the U.S. adult population. Extreme fear of hypodermic syringes, or injections used in various medical procedures, often leads to fewer vaccinations and blood donations among sufferers. Memphis-based Christie Medical Holdings has come up with an innovative technology, called VeinViewer, that alleviates the patient’s discomfort, while undergoing venipuncture, by projecting a real-time image of the veins on to the person’s arm.

Administering an injection, especially on people with severe needle-related anxiety disorder, often makes it difficult for medical professionals to accurately locate the patient’s veins. Featuring advanced HD imaging and highly-specialized Df2 (Digital Full Field) technology, the VeinViewer provides detailed information, about patient vasculature, to help phlebotomists identify the best access sites and also, prevent potential stick-related complications.

The product uses near-infrared illumination to create, and project, an in-depth imagery of the patient’s vascular system on to his or her arm. It pinpoints the position of valves, birfurcations and other problem areas. Additionally, it assists clinicians in drawing the patient’s blood, by providing real-time imaging of the rolling veins and the minute curves in blood vessels. According to the developers, the contraption has been shown to increase first-stick success by nearly 100-percent, and reduce the need for inconvenient PICC lines by over than 30-percent. The company’s spokesperson said:

VeinViewer is the only vein finder of its kind that can positively impact the entire pre-, during and post-access procedure.

The latest model, known as VeinViewer Vision2, boasts a number of impressive features, including the ability to generate detailed full report of the patient’s entire vasculature, without having to re-position the device. It runs on AC power or a set of fast-swap lithium ion batteries with average runtime of around two hours. According to the company, the device comes equipped with a range of customization options:

… a clinician can: change the color of the projected image, invert or re-size the image, enhance the image using the fine detail mode, increase or decrease the image brightness or take and store a PNG file of the image. The advantage of all this customization is that the clinician can choose which mode provides the best image for her, and which mode provides the best image of her patient’s vasculature.



To learn more about the product, visit the official website of Christie Medical Holdings.











