MassDevice Podcast with Ron Goldman, AccuVein CEO

October 12, 2011 by MassDevice staff

Venipuncture – drawing blood or establishing an intravenous feed – is the most common invasive medical procedure. For many patients, it’s a painful exercise in frustration when clinicians struggle to find a blood vessel, sometimes requiring multiple needle sticks.

AccuVein and CEO Ron Goldman aim to change all that with the company’s vascular illumination device. The wireless, handheld module uses a pair of lasers to paint a patient’s arm with light, making otherwise invisible or hard-to-find blood vessels apparent to the naked eye.

“When you draw blood or insert an IV line without vascular illumination, you’re essentially going blind,” Goldman told MassDevice. “With vascular illumination, you simply shine it on the arm and you see the vasculature as though it’s painted right on the body.”

Goldman, an electrical engineer and patent attorney by training, told us he got his first indoctrination into the world of imaging technology as a patent lawyer in Manhattan in the early 1980s. AccuVein’s device is based on the principle that blood absorbs infrared light, Goldman said.

“We line up two lasers, one infrared and one red laser. We very simply are looking for where the infrared light is absorbed,” he explained. “It’s very simple, elegant technology.”

AccuVein drummed up $22.5 million in a Series B round in July, led by MVM Life Science Partners and Bessemer Venture Partners. The device is cleared for sale in at least 88 countries worldwide, including the U.S., India, Russia, Japan and China.

Click here to listen to the MassDevice podcast interview with AccuVein CEO Ron Goldman