Amarillo, Texas- Amarillo nurses are one of the country's first to start using a new device that can perform blood tests, and without drawing any blood.
With a device only the size of an iPhone, Amarillo's WIC Program can provide non-invasive and immediate access to hemoglobin, oxygen saturation, and pulse rate, without removing a drop of blood.
The new system called "The Pronto" is used to screen for iron deficiency and anemia tests.
With their old system they had to poke a patient's finger and fill up several tubes of blood, and then wait up to 5 minutes to run the tests.
"The Pronto" works by shining a light through the patient's nail bed to determine their hemoglobin level.
It only takes about a minute to run a test.
Assistant WIC Director Shantel Elser says, "it doesn't hurt at all. I'm usually a big wimp when it comes to needles, but this is nice. No, I don't even know it's on my finger. The old way you had to have a lancid and be poked and actually extract some blood. This way I don't even know it's on my finger."
A nutritionist at WIC tells me that it certainly is a lot quieter there, since they're using the pronto instead of needles.
