New technology may make blood tests convenient, painless

At the University of Wisconsin-Madison a new tool may make it easier for patients to pull blood samples from home.

The device would extract blood by only being held up against the skin for about 2 minutes, according to an UW-Madison announcement. The process--in which a vacuum within the device enables a small sample of blood to flow into an attached sample tube--is virtually pain-free, the announcement cites users as saying. It is being developed by Tasso Inc., whose founders studied the technology in the lab of UW-Madison professor David Beebe.

The company received $3 million from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to continue work on the project. Announcement