A jab minus pain

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Getting an injection is not an easy experience for most of us. The agony is more when the nurse fails to locate the vein, because that means you will be pricked multiple times with needles. The pain from all the jabs or improper placement of needles to a location other than veins accidentally are agonising. The nurse is equally helpless at times because the veins are hidden within a layer of skin and are poorly visible to naked eye, particularly in kids in whom the veins are very thin and fragile. 

Better ways of locating veins for injections remained an unmet clinical need for decades. Locating veins using a vein viewer device for an injection is a standard practice in developed countries, but it is not being practised in our country because of the high cost. 

Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST), has developed a Vein Viewer that can precisely locate the position of veins, is affordable, easy to use, portable and battery-operated.  The device uses low power infra-red light to illuminate the skin surface where the vein needs to be located. 

The technology developed by the clinical and engineering teams of SCTIMST was transferred to Agappe Diagnostics Pvt Limited for commercialisation on the occasion of the 100th governing body meeting of SCTIMST recently.