First ever Vein viewing Tech trial underway in Australia. And it’s not in vain!
Do you have hard-to-find veins? Don’t let that stop you from donating blood now. Because Australian Red Cross Blood service is conducting research into the use of leading-edge technology to visualise blood donors’ veins during blood donation.
The vein visualisation devices are portable, and project an image of the veins onto the skin’s surface using non-invasive near infra-red technology.
The Blood Service is aiming to find out if this procedure reduces anxiety, improves donation comfort and makes donors more likely to donate again. The study will assess the responses of 300 first-time and 600 return donors aged between 18 and 30 attending the Chatswood and Elizabeth Street Donor Centres in Sydney.
“Donor Centre staff have found the technology particularly useful in cases where the vein is not visible to the naked eye” said Dr Dan Waller, one of the senior investigators on the trial. “We are keen to retain our young donors, and it is important to test if this technology may help us do that.”
The results of the research so far will be presented at a conference in Philadelphia in late October.
