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IT LOOKS like a ghoulish Halloween trick. Yet the device, which projects a creepy green video image of a patient’s veins onto their skin, is about to go on trial in a US hospital. The idea is that it will help staff to pinpoint a suitable vein for an injection or a drip.

The device is aimed at preventing the discomfort and delay of botched attempts to pierce veins for injections and blood tests, and to cut the time it takes to set up potentially life-saving intravenous drips. “To stick a vein properly you need to get it in exactly…

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