Can drawing blood be done by robots?
What’s happening:
- Dutch healthcare robotics startup Vitestro has raised €20M in a new financing round
- The round saw notable participation from multiple venture capital funds including NYBC Ventures, Invest-NL and the European Innovation Council Fund
The big idea:
- Viestro’s technology uses infrared to locate a vein on patients and an ultrasound to map an image of the blood vessel
- Viestro’s artificial intelligence powered robotic device then uses this information to identify the right location to puncture and inserts a needle to draw blood with extreme precision
By the numbers:
- Vitestro has raised €46M from government grants and venture capital funding since inception
Why it matters:
- Hospitals and clinics globally have been dealing with a shortage of nurses and doctors, which has spurred a flurry of new startups aiming to improve patient care through technology and robotics
Going deeper:
- Vitestro is currently running the world’s largest scale clinical trial for autonomous blood draws in the Netherlands through multiple collaborations with independent hospitals and clinics
The fine print:
- Vitestro’s robotics technology will not be allowed to draw blood on patients outside of their ongoing clinical trial until they receive a formal certification for their device from healthcare policymakers in the European Union
