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by George Schmitt
AFRL, Materials and Manufacturing Directorate

Accomplishment: Scientists from the Air Force Research Laboratory’s (AFRL) Materials and Manufacturing Directorate (ML) have invented, developed, patented and licensed a breakthrough medical technology: a vein-viewing device that can see beneath the skin and through body sections to show the network of blood veins in the body in a broad range of lighting conditions. Due to the technology’s potential for a broad range of civilian medical uses, ML established a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with InfraRed Imaging Systems (IRIS), Inc., of Columbus, Ohio, to manufacture and market the technology to the medical industry and expand the technology to solve other critical medical challenges. IRIS has gone on to further develop the technology and create a product, the IRIS Vascular Viewer, for commercial release.

Payoff: Developing the vein viewer technology will provide both the Air Force and the medical community with a solution to the need for a reliable and accurate method of rapidly and accurately viewing a patient’s veins in conditions where the lighting is less than optimal, and even abysmal. On the battlefield, in hospitals, and at the scene of accidents, prompt IV administration has the potential to save countless lives.

Background: Military medical personnel have often said that one of the most immediate concerns on the battlefield is the ability to properly insert an IV into an injured soldier immediately. This same thing has been said by other emergency medical personnel, like EMTs, of victims of car accidents or acts of violence. The procedure is especially difficult at night, in environments of restricted light, and on patients whose veins are not easily seen through the skin. The AFRL-ML began addressing this concern in 1994.

Through research conducted by ML scientists and engineers, Vein Viewer technology was developed. This technology uses night-vision goggles equipped with special light filters that were developed by the Air Force that allowed the viewer to see infrared light passing through the patient’s body, except in the areas blocked by blood moving through veins and arteries. As a result, medical professionals were able to see veins and arteries quicker in poor lighting conditions and in patients whose veins were not easily visible. When medical professionals can clearly and quickly see veins, patients are saved from being poked with a needle multiple times. This is especially helpful for newborn babies who are very sensitive to pain and also have extremely tiny veins. Additional experiments proved that the needle beneath the skin would also be visible.

Because the Vein Viewer’s technology encompassed such a broad range of civilian applications, including emergency medical services, trauma centers, blood banks, pediatric and geriatric care facilities, and a variety of surgical procedures, ML scientists attempted to license the technology to large companies in the hope that it would become available for civilian use.

In 2002, ML teamed with InfraRed Systems (IRIS), Inc., which had the skill to aid them in transitioning the technology to the medical community. Under a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with IRIS to expand and market the technology, ML scientists have put a great deal of time into aiding IRIS with the physics and physiology applicable to the invention, and serving as advisors about various technological issues associated with its usage.

IRIS continued development of the Vein Viewer technology and in 2005 introduced the first commercial product, the IRIS Vascular Viewer at the Infusion Nurses Society’s (INS) annual meeting. The Vascular Viewer has four main components: an infrared light source, a light source controller, a viewing scope, and a light source masking pad. It allows superficial veins, as well as deeply located veins, to be visualized. The visualization is noninvasive, direct and in real-time.

In addition to the INS annual meeting, two IRIS Vascular Viewers are going to be trialed at the Wilford Hall Medical Center at Lackland Air Force Base.