Blood is the essential physiological parameter when it comes to assess our health, going from routine check-ups to complex tests for infectious diseases. However, for over 150 years, blood collection techniques have not evolved. Skilled healthcare professionals are still required to pursuit complex procedures (venipuncture) to attain proper blood samples for further analyses. For patients, common adverse effects of venipuncture are bruising at the site of puncture, fainting, nerve damage and hematomas. Moreover, venipuncture is prone to erros in diagnostics as each step in the process of the blood draw affects the quality. When 80% of all medical decisions are based on blood results, it really matters. Venipunctre require trained staff. in low resource settings where money and time is scarce, a lack of trained staff leads to shortcomings of peoples’ health. Furthermore, this procedure is also unsafe to workers: In UK, a total of 2,947 sharps injuries involving a source patient infected with a blood borne virus were reported by health care workers during 2002-2011.
We are developing a needle-free solution which is able to extract and collect capillary blood in a simple, safe and painless way: SmartSyringe. It is a revolutionary technology which enables simple, safe and painless blood collection without needles. It enjoys several advantages over venous blood sampling: it is less invasive, it requires smaller amounts of blood volume and it can be performed quickly and easily.
The ultimate objective is to make SmartSyringe ready for market launch in Europe. This entails a number of technical and strategic objectives, including the completion of product development, the industrialization to reach commercial scale production, the clinical validation through a European clinical study and the exploitation of its results. The SME-I plays a key role in this strategy by providing the financial resources needed for a rapid and effective market uptake.
