The July/August issue of Discover features an article about the groundbreaking research coming out of Professor Martin Yarmush's lab--developing a robotic blood-drawing device that has pariticular benefits for those with small or hard to locate veins.
According to the article, "Late one night in 1982, a Yale University medical student named Martin Yarmush witnessed a harrowing scene at a local hospital. A toddler was admitted, and several nurses attempted to insert an IV needle into one of the child’s tiny veins. Each time they missed the vessel, the child screamed more shrilly, and the mother grew more worried.
There has to be a better way, thought Yarmush, now a professor of biomedical engineering at Rutgers University. The incident changed his outlook on medicine. Thoroughly unnerved by the anguish he’d witnessed, Yarmush started to imagine what would happen if the process of drawing blood could be automated.
Thanks to advances in sensors and artificial intelligence that have improved the quality and lowered the cost of robotics, they are now developing a blood-draw robot small enough for clinicians to carry in their pockets."
Read the full article HERE.