Developed by the Taiwanese biotech company Winnoz Technology, the Haiim device offers an alternative to conventional blood extraction.
When Joses Hsiung was a boy, he watched nurses struggle time and time again to extract blood from his mother’s veins. Like many, she experienced pain and discomfort with needles when having regular blood tests. Later, as the founder and CEO of Winnoz Technology, these memories inspired him to find another solution that would make people feel more relaxed and comfortable when having their blood taken.
After years of research and development, Winnoz Technology managed to produce Haiim, a small, portable blood collection device. Rather than drawing blood from a vein in a patient’s arm, it collects blood from the index, middle or ring finger of either hand.
First, the chosen finger is sterilized and lanced by a medical professional. Then, the finger is placed on a disposable component of the Haiim. Once the “start” button is pressed, the device uses gentle vacuum suction to extract between 150 and 500 microlitres of blood.
Although that amount might seem too small, it actually provides sufficient volume for various panels of blood tests—such as glucose and ketone monitoring, cholesterol, cardiovascular conditions and sexually transmitted diseases. This quantity is also enough to allow the detection of certain infectious diseases such as Covid-19, dengue and malaria. Only exams such as a full blood count, biochemistry panel and immunological tests require larger volumes of blood than the Haiim can extract.
The device is portable and easy to use. It supports quick and flexible deployment in different field situations such as laboratories, clinics or pharmacies and it is compatible with different brands of microtubes. It also reduces the need for human resources and produces less waste. Up until now, the Haiim has already been sold in 26 countries throughout Europe, the Middle East and Southeast Asia.
Winnoz Technology is a biotech company created in Taiwan that focuses on Point-of-Care Technology (POCT). Its other two current existing products are the eGGi—a portable, compact PCR molecular detection device which works through a robust isothermal amplification process—and a second version which is an extraction-free, rapid detection kit specifically for SARS-CoV-2.
