Device from startup promises to make frequent blood draws almost painless

PIVO is a needle free, blood-draw device that aims to eliminate patient pain, reduce practitioner injury, and increase hospital efficiency.  Developer Velano Vascular says it takes advantage of an existing peripheral IV line for inpatient blood draws with an aim to eliminate patient’s pain and anxiety, reduce the risk of practitioner injury, and increase hospital efficiencies for the most common, invasive medical procedure conducted daily in hospitals around the world. The goal is to deliver a new standard of compassionate care in blood draws.

The problem with current blood collection practices is that despite its ubiquity, they have not significantly changed in the past 100 years. More than 400 million annual blood draws occur in U.S. hospitals alone, informing 70% of all clinical decisions. This represents one of the most overlooked opportunities for innovation in healthcare.

Challenges with current blood-draw methods include:

• One in ten patients suffer from a clinical fear of needles
• About 40% of inpatient blood draws occur during critical rest periods between the hours of3:00 and 7:00 AM
• Nearly 50% of venipunctures on children fail the first time, requiring a second or even third attempt
• An estimated one in three patients are termed Difficult Venous Access, which means it is hard to access a vein because of age, disease, or body mass index
• More than 64% of nurses in a recent study report having been stuck by a needle
• The lifetime cost of a single seropositive employee – a positive result in a test of blood serum for the presence of a virus – from an accidental needle sitck to a hospital can exceed $1.5 million.

To address the shortcomings of current practice, Velano Vascular says an improved standard for inpatient blood draws using the PIVO device through an existing peripheral IV aims to significantly:

• Impact patient experience by reducing anxiety and improving healing
• Reduce risk of caregiver injury and needle sticks, and
• Improve hospital efficiency and financial performance.

PIVO is an FDA-cleared device that has been used in extensive clinical trials and hospital pilots since 2015. To-date, an estimated few thousand patients have received PIVO draws. These include studies at The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Griffin Health, and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, as well as pilots with University Hospitals Case Medical Center Cleveland, Intermountain Healthcare, and Griffin Hospital.

Further discussions with hundreds of practitioners and health system leaders as part of a thorough market validation and market development effort have demonstrated that this simple, yet elegant, approach to inpatient blood draws the potential to “change the game” for one of the oldest medical procedures in the world – benefitting patients, practitioners, and hospitals alike.

“At some point along the journey of life we will all spend time in a hospital. Through patient-centered design and a commitment to compassionate care, I believe this technology will eventually touch every single human being on the planet.” Eric M. Stone, co-founder and CEO.