A new blood examination tool tested at Sparrow Laboratories and Clinical Research Institute received approval last month from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The tool, called “QScout,” allows healthcare providers to draw blood from a patient by poking the patient’s finger. “It’s similar to what you would do if you were a diabetic,” Tony Bailey, a clinical innovation consultant at Sparrow, said.
It tests for the number of white blood cells in a patient’s blood – a test that typically takes at least 24 hours to get results back if you’re getting it done in a lab. “This is…much faster, where we get the results back in two minutes,” Bailey said.
The higher the white blood cell count in a sample, the more likely there is a bacterial or viral infection somewhere in the body. Infections that go undetected and untreated may lead to sepsis. “We can get results back quicker, which can save lives, especially looking at testing for early onset infections,” Bailey said.
Current testing is focused on early infection detection, but Bailey said there is potential to expand into different areas of testing.
It’s unclear when healthcare providers may start using the new tool on patients.
