Date: December 31, 2004
Contact: pr@andrews.edu
Website: http://www.conenhill.com
Phone:

While it might never be a desirable experience, future blood tests should be a significantly less threatening ordeal for all hemophobes, thanks to the work of Gunnar Lovhoiden, assistant professor of engineering at Andrews University, whose PhD project was recently highlighted in the November 29, 2004 issue of Time Magazine as one of the year’s top inventions in health science.

While a doctoral student at the University of Tennessee College of Health Science Engineering in Memphis, Tenn., Lovhoiden worked with Herbert D. Zemen, associate professor of biomedical engineering and radiology, to successfully design a device that enables medical professionals to detect usable veins in 94% of all difficult intravenous cases. The device, named OnTarget, beams infrared light into a patient’s skin, utilizing the differing absorption properties of veins and surrounding tissue to create a real time “map” of the sub dermal region. This image is then captured, processed, and projected back onto the patient’s skin, showing precisely where blood vessels lie. OnTarget is already sending shockwaves through the bioengineering community, and Lovhoiden now sits as a minority shareholder on the Board of Directors for Conenhill, a company seeking to produce commercial units of the device.

For more information about Conenhill, log onto their website at http://www.conenhill.com.