New Medical Device Draws Blood Pain-Free

There’s a new medical device that allows people to take their blood painlessly. For people that have to test their blood on a regular basis, this new device could hold promise for making their day a little less of a pain.

The device, developed by Tasso Inc., is about the size of a ping-pong ball and attaches to the arm. There’s a small vacuum inside that’s able to extract a small amount of blood while held against the skin after two minutes. Users have reported that the device is able to complete its job while being almost painless. So, not perfect, but better than a needle prick.

It can gather about 0.15 of a cubic centimeter of blood, which is enough to test anything that would need a sample in a normal lab. It would even be enough for a diabetic to take his or her blood sugar. Though, Ben Casavant, Tasso vice president and co-founder, admitted in a press release that diabetics were not the company’s original target audience.

“We see our specialty as people who need to test semi-frequently, or infrequently, to monitor cancer or chronic infectious diseases, for example. Instead of buying a machine or expensive equipment, we ship you this device; you put it on your arm for two minutes and send it back to the lab.”

Tasso is sending in its application to the Food and Drug Administration by the end of 2015, and if the device is approved, Casavant is hoping the device will be able to hit the market by 2016.