What is Digg?54 Comments
- bashar129, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3cool but is it practical.
is getting poked once instead of three or four times worth $25,000. - pairanoyd, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Too bad they didn't have this when I went under the knife.
I had back surgery and they stuck a morphine on demand in the back of my hand afterwards. I had a very invasive and brutal surgery involving power tools.
They missed the vein by a good inch. The mistake couldn't be seen because of the tape on my hand and I had never been in a hospital before so I didn't know what morphine was supposed to do. I lay paralyzed with pain for two days because some dumbass missed my vein. And let me tell you, it shows clearly, even to people with bad eyesight. I think they did it on purpose, the damn vein is huge.
The only results of the morphine was a numb arm. I didn't know any better.
You can't imagine the pain, it was horrible. I would rather commit suicide than EVER go back into the hospital for ANYTHING. Death would be better than putting my life in the hands of those idiots. - hyukhyuk, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3johndi, this won't be much use for a flu jab. Flu jabs are intra-muscular, not intra-venous — You don't need to see a vein you just need to hit a big chunk of muscle.
- anagoge, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Why is it that even though I've seen so many cool stories like this, all of the main news sites NEVER offer a suitably large version of the image they use within the report? It bugs me so much.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3crazyc@
"Killing a man IS a cruel punishment - no matter how cleanly it's done, it is still murder."
I laughed when I heard Tookie cried after they missed a few times. They should just let the victims'kin throw poisonious darts at the savages. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Does it work on black people with dark skin?
What about fat people, does the light beam shine all the way through that fat? - johndi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@ hyuk, good thing I'm not a doctor.
@ willcode4beer. Yikes! You're probably right, but I'm not sure I'm ready for that. - blackb0x, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Sounds like a hyped up version of the old Sony Handycam night vision problem they had a few years ago. I have one of those cameras, and if you turn on nightvision during the day, you can see through clothes, skin, and almost anything else that's relatively non-dense.
- GMullen, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I don't think it's like a tongue depressor where you use it once and throw it away. You could use this many different times like at a blood bank if you walk in for the first time and a n00b's misses 3, 4, 5 times what are the chances you'll come back to do that again?
Or for the children who are afraid? and need an IV how bad would it suck to have some 6yr old kid getting "poked" 3 or 4 times? - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Yes, if it means life-saving drugs are administered 5 minutes faster (think cardiac arrest).
- T-Maaz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I have a friend who has a strange problem (although not that uncommon, apparently) that when she gets stuck, her veins "roll" -- they actually slide over, and out of the way -- even after warning the nurse about it, this issue still causes her to get stuck multiple times as they try to hit the vein dead center. Something like this sounds like a god-send to people who have this problem, as opposed to getting stuck 5 or 6 times (and bruised up) from the RN not being able to hit dead-center on the first shot.
- Omicron, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@bashar:
it seems very much worth it to me.. but then again, i've had to sit and watch 3 different nurses try and find my 4 month old daughter's tiny veins pricking her 5 times until they found it while i had to sit and hold her in place while she screemed bloody murder.
so... whether or not the technology is perfected or efficient yet or not... this definately gets a digg from me - Drizzit, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@johndi
What does this have to do with flu shots. Given I did not read the article but I do know flu shots are not injected into the blood stream. It's put in your arm or thigh so your body slowly asorbs it and reacts to it. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2You can do this for free if you have a webcam... You just take off the IR filter, and then you have an infrared webcam.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/geoff.johnson2/IR/ - mattymayhem, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Yeh I suppose the druggies will be all over this technology. But yeh I can understand how this helps medicine, injections can be more accurate!
- IHaveIssues, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2My sister is a nurse and will be pissed that this is out now. I can it in her training classes: "When I was studying nursing we didn't have these fancy vein-viewer thingamagigs, we used oranges and real people!"
- intoflatlines, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Most infrared cameras and infrared flash/lamp will give similar effects. It won't be as dramatic as the example, but it works. Don't believe me? Take a cheap sony camcorder and go in a dark room. Turn nightshot on and aim the camera at someone's arm. You will see the veins regardless of whether you can see them in normal light or not.
- Migdilio, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Somebody get this man a new Irony Detector!
His appears to be busted. - Kahnza, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2All that because of one nurse? Its not her fault shes retarded. :(
- Juano11, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@Crazyc...Irony and sarcasm are not the same thing...
- Juano11, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@thbarnes
I'm an anesthesiologist and I start IV's all the time. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1You may see where the vein/artery is but how about the depth. Try poking an obese patient.
- njyoder, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Yes, but this projects the image onto the person's arm so you can see it and position the needle exactly where you want it. Proper IR illumination, combined with a good camera and projector (or lcd display--but that would suffer from resolution problems if small and be very expensive if large). The ghetto version there doesn't cut it, especially for emergency services. It will be expensive enough as-is just meeting basic government standards for electronic medical devices, tacking on other unnecessary costs will put it through the rough.
Anyway, I saw this over a year ago on medgadget (not to be confused with engadget). It's basically like engadget (in terms of the website--I don't know if the management is the same), but focused just on medical technology. I suggest following it if you're interested in the latest in medical technologies. Some of it might be boring (if you're not into certain subjects), but everyone will find an occasional gem.
As the EMS person mentioned below, this has been used in the field already. It's not just useful for emergency. Fear of getting a "needle stick" is VERY common and given the inability of many nurses to properly insert an IV (intraVENOUS) line (this is different than IM--intraMUSCULAR--which is what vaccines and other medicines come in), this will be extremely helpful. It will make sure that they get it right the first time. It will also avoid the scenario someone else mentioned here, where they *think* they put it in correctly, but didn't. It ends up leaving a lovely discolored bruise and puts that part of body in a decent amount of pain if they do it wrong. - scotty1024, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1If your hospital has Doctors poking you then yeah, it'll save $25,000. If it has Nurses poking you (like most hospitals) then the ROI will be a bit longer.
- Juano11, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I regularly do both, and one is easier than the other.
- willcode4beer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1As our robotics technology increase and the cost of health care increases this technology may be used to perform automated injections and install IV lines.
By making it easier to locate a vein, the software to pick the injection site will be much simpler - johndi, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Their competitor says it's “It’s like using an elephant gun to kill a fly” Of course their machine requires you dim the lights which can also be impractical as some people really dislike a dim room. Also many Flu shot drives are in places where you can't dim the lights. Think Economy of scale, in a shot drive this thing would pay for itself in no time.
- Juano11, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Yes and yes
- Filoviridae, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1That's 10 pounds of ***** in a 5 pound sack. They had to have a Phlebotomist come in and SHOW them how to do it. Only then were they successful. No way...I don't buy that.
- Filoviridae, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2My (10 month old) son got stuck over 15 times and blew out as many veins because the retarded nurses couldn't figure out how to get the IV in. Of course a Phlebotomist can nail it in one try but the laws are as retarded as the nurses...they can only draw blood and not start an IV. Yeah let's stop people who do nothing but catch veins and prevent them from just starting an IV...It's not like they're administering medicine. If this would have helped the jackass nurses not torture my son for over an hour it would have been worth the extra cost.
- bebop717, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I hope next time when I want to donate blood they will use this because they f***** up the last 2 times.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Doctors? Doctors don't start IVs, paramedics and nurses start IVs. We've had devices that help us find veins using infared technology for years in EMS. Besides, we're moving to intraosseuous (inter-bone) cannulation anyway, it's quicker, more secure, just as painful, and just as effective. I pop one in every obese patient, I don't waste time trying to start an IV, especially if major trauma or cardiac arrest is eminient. Check out Vida-Care's EZ-IO http://www.vidacare.com/Home/index_1.html
- Jams, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I remember reading an article about this in New Scientist a couple of years ago. Cool stuff.
- SouthernDigger, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1put that company on the list to watch out for upcoming IPO's.
- Maggoo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I've been able to do this with my modified webcam for AAGES, and it didn't cost me a penny, or am I missing somthing?
http://www.badacetechshow.com/nvc.htm
that shows up the veins in your foot damn well. - lbeaty1981, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Definitely some cool tech here. I'm fortunate enough to have very prominent veins, but I know that my grandmother has had multiple problems in the past with nurses unable to find a vein. After the 4th or 5th try, she tends to get a little angry for some reason or another (she used to be an Army nurse, so that doesn't help)...
- MikeCampo, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Free in Canada.
- iWorks, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Can you imagine going to an assisted living complex and taking portraits of the residents with one of these...
- Juano11, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Drawing blood and inserting a cannula which you can leave in place for some time and infuse fluids through are two very different things. Inserting the cannula (what the nurses were trying, quite unsuccessfully, to do) is more difficult than simply drawing blood.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0I don't think they're gonna be able afford it, but pick up the Journal of Emergency Medicine, it's got cheaper models that have been out for years.
- crazyc, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1@otherland
Oh is this sarcasm again? I don't really get it. Do you really believe that taking a life can be justified?
". . . what a state of society is that which knows of no better instrument for its own defense than the hangman, and which proclaims . . . its own brutality as eternal law? . . . [I]s there not a necessity for deeply reflecting upon an alteration of the system that breeds these crimes, instead of glorifying the hangman who executes a lot of criminals to make room only for the supply of new ones?"
-- Karl Marx, 1853 - crazyc, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Oh yeah, because the guy being executed is really worried about needles? Killing is ok, but not being able to find a vein equals cruel and unusual punishment?
Killing a man IS a cruel punishment - no matter how cleanly it's done, it is still murder. - ZekeSulastin, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1I hate to be an *****, but it's also your fault for not doing enough research to go "WTF?!!"
Although I won't say that you didn't have a bad experience - that sounds horrible :( - SuperJesus, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1very cool indeed...
- WailOS, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Every Goth club will want to have one of these installed on the ceiling.
- jawdog, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2Original story.
http://www.digg.com/science/Mapping_veins_as_a_human_bar_code_ - sprocketonline, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2Sweet, now it's even easier to shoot heroin.
Even in those toilets with U.V. light.
You might need to mug a few more grannies and steal more TV's to afford the $25,000 price tag though........ - Migdilio, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1I'm surprised no one has mentioned how much easier lethal injections will be.
I read this one story where they jabbed the guy three times trying to find a vein. Took ten minutes just to get the needle in. Death penalty opponents have been using cases like these as proof that the procedure is tantamount to cruel and unusual punishment. This new technology kind of _kills_ that argument.
Ba-zing! (And The State ftw!) - ellimist, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0Hrm... I should have patented, I guess. I had that very idea right after reading through this site:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/geoff.johnson2/IR/ -
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