Velano Vascular, a medical technology company with the goal of reducing needle sticks during the inpatient blood draw procedure, announced that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted marketing clearance for a new technology that provides an innovative approach to one of the most common procedures in medicine the in-hospital blood draw. The proprietary device reduces the need for needle sticks (clinically known as venipunctures) for blood draws in the hospital, a procedure that occurs approximately 350 million times annually in the United States alone.

The Velano Vascular technology is designed to reduce unnecessary pain and anxiety for patients receiving medications and hydration via intravenous (IV) delivery, while aiming to provide a safer work environment for healthcare providers conducting blood draws.

"A fundamental benefit of this technology is reducing the 'pin cushion effect', in which hospitalised patients are 'stuck' several times daily to obtain blood tests. Oftentimes, the draw procedure is plagued by multiple failed attempts," says Eric M. Stone, Velano Vascular's co-founder and chief executive officer. "The FDA's clearance of this novel technology validates the existing clinical need and will allow us to expedite our efforts to bring this innovation to patients, healthcare providers and hospitals around the world."

According to research conducted by Velano Vascular, one out of every three hospital patients is stuck two or more times daily for blood draws, with a significant subset of these inpatients receiving as many as three blood draws or greater, along with numerous needle sticks. Twenty-eight percent of adult venipunctures and 44 percent of pediatric venipunctures require more than one stick to successfully draw blood.1 Using the disposable, single-use Velano Vascular technology, newly placed peripheral intravenous (PIV) catheters can be momentarily repurposed to draw blood from patients, thereby reducing the need for additional needle sticks to conduct blood draws among the majority of hospitalised patients with IVs in place.

"Traditional blood draws are one of the most common and most problematic healthcare procedures," said Karen Daley, RN, immediate past president of the American Nurses Association and a healthcare-worker safety advocate. "It is an antiquated technology that creates pain and anxiety for many patients, a significant safety risk for healthcare professionals, and a real inefficiency in our healthcare system. Velano Vascular has developed a common-sense solution to this pervasive, long-standing problem."

"Velano Vascular has developed a simple, game-changing innovation that will improve the way medicine has been practiced for decades," said Mitch Kapor, founding partner at Kapor Capital, a Velano Vascular investor. "We are proud to be supporting a technology that has the potential to deliver profound benefits for everyone involved."