Excessive venipunctures are both time- and resource-consuming events, which cause anxiety, pain, and distress in patients, or can
lead to severe harmful injuries.We propose a low-cost mobile health solution for subcutaneous vein detection using near-infrared
spectroscopy, along with an assessment of the current state of the art in this field. The first objective of this study was to get a
deeper overview of the research topic, through the initial team discussions and a detailed literature review (using both academic
and grey literature).The second objective, that is, identifying the commercial systems employing near-infrared spectroscopy, was
conducted using the PubMed database.Thegoal of the third objective was to identify and evaluate (using the IEEE Xplore database)
the research efforts in the field of low-cost near-infrared imaging in general, as a basis for the conceptual model of the upcoming
prototype. Although the reviewed commercial devices have demonstrated usefulness and value for peripheral veins visualization,
other evaluated clinical outcomes are less conclusive. Previous studies regarding low-cost near-infrared systems demonstrated the
general feasibility of developing cost-effective vein detection systems; however, their limitations are restricting their applicability
to clinical practice. Finally, based on the current findings, we outline the future research direction.