BackgroundExcessive venipunctures are a significant problem both in emergency rooms and during hospital stays. Near-infrared (NIR) illumination devices improve venipuncture success rate but their usage is limited by their availability and economic cost. The objectives of this study were to develop a low-cost NIR spectroscopy prototype from a standard mobile device, to evaluate its efficacy and acceptance as an educational tool, and in a clinical setting.MethodsThrough a user-centric design process a prototype device was developed. Its educational efficacy was evaluated through a non-invasive, observational study (20 student clinicians, 25 subjects) and its acceptance was assessed using quantitative and qualitative analysis. A smaller clinical trial was performed by a group of 4 medical professionals over a period of 6 weeks that involved 64 patients.ResultsThe prototype enables real-time visualization of peripheral veins on a variety of Android-based devices. The prototype was 35.2% more successful in visualizing and locating veins (n = 500 attempts) than the nursing students. The acceptance assessment revealed high perception of usefulness, satisfaction, and ease of use. In the clinical trial, 1.6 (SD 1.3) additional veins per patient were identified compared with the traditional visualization methods.ConclusionsTo the best of our knowledge this is the first study that describes the design, feasibility and application of an NIR spectroscopy prototype developed on a standard mobile device.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12911-014-0100-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Excessive venipunctures are both time- and resource-consuming events, which cause anxiety, pain, and distress in patients, or can lead to severe harmful injuries. We propose a low-cost mobile health solution for subcutaneous vein detection using near-infrared spectroscopy, along with an assessment of the current state of the art in this field. The first objective of this study was to get a deeper overview of the research topic, through the initial team discussions and a detailed literature review (using both academic and grey literature). The second objective, that is, identifying the commercial systems employing near-infrared spectroscopy, was conducted using the PubMed database. The goal of the third objective was to identify and evaluate (using the IEEE Xplore database) the research efforts in the field of low-cost near-infrared imaging in general, as a basis for the conceptual model of the upcoming prototype. Although the reviewed commercial devices have demonstrated usefulness and value for peripheral veins visualization, other evaluated clinical outcomes are less conclusive. Previous studies regarding low-cost near-infrared systems demonstrated the general feasibility of developing cost-effective vein detection systems; however, their limitations are restricting their applicability to clinical practice. Finally, based on the current findings, we outline the future research direction.

Abstract. The use of mobile computing is expanding dramatically in recent years and trends indicate that "the future is mobile". Nowadays, mobile computing plays an increasingly important role in the biomedical domain, and particularly in hospitals. The benefits of using mobile devices in hospitals are no longer disputed and many applications for medical care are already available. Many studies have proven that mobile technologies can bring various benefits for enhancing information management in the hospital. But is mobility a solution for every problem? In this paper, we will demonstrate that mobility is not always an advantage. On the basis of a field study at the pediatric surgery of a large University Hospital, we have learned within a two-year long mobile computing project, that mobile devices have indeed many disadvantages, particularly in stressful and hectic situations and we conclude that mobile computing is not always advantageous.

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