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Google Proposes 'Needle-less' System For Drawing Blood (thestack.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Google has published a patent for a needle-free blood draw technology which could be incorporated into a wrist wearable or hand-held device. The patent filing explained that the system releases a pulse of gas into a barrel or 'hollow cylinder', containing a 'micro-particle' which can break through the skin and draw a small sample of blood. According to Google, once the drop of blood forms it is drawn up into the negative pressure barrel. This technique is a quicker and less invasive alternative to using needles, or other blood measures which administer pin pricks to the finger to release the blood. The patent, which is still pending, suggests that the mechanism could also provide a replacement for glucose testers used by diabetics.
Excellent, now when we browse the net, random websites can track us with our DNA.
- Hollow cylinder/barrel? Check!
- Breaks the skin? Check!
- Uses negative pressure within the barrel to suck in the blood? Check!
That sounds a fuck of a lot like a needle to me, it's just made of gas instead of metal!
because needle-less systems are nothing new.
As a diabetic I have to say this sounds pretty cool. Pricking fingers 3-4 times per day sucks. I would be happier if they found a way to restore insulin production to my pancreas, but I'll take what i can get.
So it's a freakin' gun? What happens to these micro-particles? You'll be filling your bloodstream with micro-bullets?
I'd still choose the needle, thank you very much.
This sounds like an engineering project in search of an application. Using a micro-particle in this fashion is relatively clever, but it doesn't solve anything useful as far as I can tell. It's basically using a micro-particle fired at high velocity into your skin with a negative pressure behind it, so once it punctures the skin the negative pressure in the tube draws up blood. Most people I know who do not enjoy the invasiveness of regular blood tests like diabetics are not so much concerned with needles, they're concerned with the prick and the pain and the opening of their skin to exposure. This does the exact same thing that a needle does but instead of using a mechanically driven needle, it's using a kinetically driven micro-particle. The key to new forms of blood testing technologies is not needle-less, it's non-invasive, and this is still invasive.
So the big question is how much blood does it get through the micro-puncture? Is it enough to run a test? Glucose monitoring maybe, but not much more.
What happens if the aperture membrane is off slightly or fails and the negative pressure pulls from the environment and not directly from the skin puncture, leaving the micro-particle in the body? Now you've just introduced a foreign object that will be hard to remove; the FDA would want to have solid answers to this question before it's ever sold. In fact, I'd say this is years of clinical trials use away from being an actual product, since it directly introduces a foreign body into the blood stream and appears to be intended for personal use (clinics have blood draw products for glucose monitoring that are way better than this), which means it would need a personal use CLIA Waiver which is very hard to get. This is at least 5-7 years of 3 Phase clinical trials before this was every something deployable.
that you loose all sense of reality ?
is it cause you have no sense of reality in anything, but since I know biotech i know you are wacko ?
again and again we get posts about gee whiz stuff that rarely , if ever, pans out
for instance, how much volume do you need to get an accurate representation ?
is the volume released thru a micro hole the same composition as bulk blood ?
how does this work ifyou are old and dehydrated ?
imo, slashdot should have a rule about biotech stuff: no posts untill at least a successful stage 2 clinical trial or its equivalent; that would weed out 90% of the fluff
Theranos with all your billions and 1 decade can't even come up with a single useful innovation
They were already getting all my information from me, clearly that was not enough :)
So this is their way of fulfilling that promise of No Evil?
Back on topic, yes this might be a nice solution to these single drop only analyses.
Why it should be Google?
I hope there will be safeguards against them including our body's make-up in their already scary data base.
"The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
My guess is the 'Micro particle' is a RFID chip with a tracking code broadcast from it.
This reminded me of one of those stupid human tricks I saw performed in my highschool years...
It definitely IS possible to suck blood directly through your skin in the areas where it's thinner, without causing damage to it.
Just thought I'd share that. Enjoy!
-AC
A thin, hollow cylinder breaks the skin, then uses negative pressure to draw blood up into it? Don't we have those?
Oh, yeah. It's called a syringe
Last thing I want is something that can introduce an air bubble into my blood stream.
...could potentially kill someone. I suppose this is supposed to vacuum it out immediately, but I don't know what the risks are.
From all the comments the sticks in the mud probably still believe America has the best health care system in the world. The way these Neanderthals are still going today it is a wonder anyone makes it out alive. The first thing they do for a hospital stay is start sticking you like a pincushion with IV needles because you "have to have them". This is so invasive and damaging to the muscle and nerve cells that they even have to change locations because that entrance can become plugged. My brother still has complications from his pancreatic infection because of the IVs he had during his induced coma not to even mention the drug resistant infection he got from the blood transfusions in the emergency room. The next thing to go will be the oxygen masks and tubes. Researchers in Japan found a way to oxygenate the blood by mixing it in with the blood much like a dialysis patient goes through. The patient is already hooked up with needles and just needs the equipment to mix and return the oxygenated blood back. Breathing is not even required. This would free up the person to be able to talk to their family or friends at life's end when their communication would be most important. I feel this was taken from me at my mom's and dad's passing because they HAD TO HAVE oxygen blown down their lungs. The comment by jimmybuffet is right on that the attention should be to restore primary function and not just manage a condition. They should not be allowed to make outrageous fortunes from others medical issues. That is just wrong on so many levels it is hard to believe that we have become so accepting to this as what our medical treatments should be. Some of us are going to have a better world because we insist on it and will not settle for just what is there. We haven't reached the Star Trek world of medicine yet but Dr McCoy would approve of noninvasive bioscanning. The medical system has helped a lot of people but they also cause some harm to others. We aren't there yet. Keep pushing on.
This has been tried before and it turned out not to be viable after a 10 year wait for it..
Google the term "Glucowatch" and you will see what a windup that was.
Amazon ads will appear in you as you drive by.....
What about spring-loaded lancets? They use a similar principle - a thin metallic spike is launched by a spring, pierces the skin and then it's retracted by the spring back into its sheaf. It's nearly painless and much less scary than a regular lancet. See here for a demonstration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Um okay.
I don't know if I want to repeatedly shoot myself with micro-particles. Especially since injuries caused by injecting high-pressure gas under the skin aren't pretty.
The little critters can draw (small amounts of) blood fairly painlessly, if it wasn't for the reaction to their saliva.
Think "Dig Dug", not "small 1ccm syringe".
How many 'micro-particles' are required to self-assemble into the permanent tracker.
It's called taxes.
Tracy Johnson
Old fashioned text games hosted below:
http://empire.openmpe.com/
BT
I'm a search engine, not a doctor!
The day Microsoft creates a product that doesn't suck, it will be known as the Microsoft Vaccuum Cleaner!