By Bhavna Bhatia

As a child, I was always afraid of needles. My last visit to the blood donation drive confirmed my fright as I came home with a bruise the size of a golf ball on my arm. The doctor poked around for nearly 15 minutes looking for a “good” vein until I finally threw in the towel and decided that donating blood just wasn’t for me!

I was just about to give up all hope when I read an article on ultrasound technology. We typically associate the word ultrasound with pregnancy but more recently is has been used for other procedures including drawing blood! The transducer [fancy word for “the handle”] of an ultra sound machine is rolled on a flat surface [such as the forearm] and veins become visible on the display screen, allowing doctors to aim directly for the vein they need to draw blood from, and avoiding the pain and bruises.

Healthcare professionals are utilizing technology to make patient visits more efficient, more effective and less painful. This isn’t limited to healthcare in America either:

In India, the National AIDS control organization has started distributing what is called the “Whole Blood Finger Prick Testing Technology (WBFTT)” which allows people to simply prick their own fingers for a small blood sample and to find out if they are HIV infected within 20 minutes! If the test reads positive, the individual must admit themselves to an actual testing center, where they will be thoroughly tested, and treatment will begin.

Considering that there are over one billion residents in India [many of whom fear that they have the disease], and the fact that India is home to at least 2.5 million HIV patients, this technology allows healthcare professionals to save time, reduce workload, and focus on the patients who are infected.

Rather than have a doctor bruise your arm with a needle, or enduring a long and nervous wait at a testing center, technology can provide relief to both patients and healthcare providers.

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