Love-bite inspired tech to help reduce botched injections

Olberon Medical Innovations has developed a device called Vacuderm, inspired by love-bites.

The technology was developed with support from Nottingham Trent University.

Vacuderm is based on a tourniquet that includes a manual pumping dome to create the suction. The suction will draw blood to the local area and as a result the size of veins will increase and become easier to locate.

The temperature of blood also increases in the local area, allowing infrared cameras to be used to help identify veins which were previously classed as ‘hard to spot’.

Vacuderm has just become available on the open market, and alongside aiming to reduce waste and save money and time for the NHS, Vacuderm hopes to improve the psychological experience for patients.

Professor Amin Al-Habaibeh, a professor in intelligent engineering systems, in the university’s school of architecture design and the built environment, said: “Veins can be especially hard to find in people who have poor or no visible veins and in certain groups of people such as children and older people.

“If a clinician has to try several times to find a vein, it can be traumatic for both the practitioner and patient.

“But this simple technology, which works on a similar basis to a love-bite, could help reduce the number of botched injections significantly by making veins more prominent and easier to find.”

Dr Arash Bakhtyari, chief executive officer of Olberon Medical Innovations, stated: “The Vacuderm was developed because patients had bad experiences with needle insertion and this study shows that the Vacuderm is likely to help with this.”

Researchers claim this device can increase the diameter of veins and as a result reduce the number of botched injections on the NHS.