Case Studies on the Use of Patient-centric Sampling for Clinical Studies in Pharmaceutical Drug Development
Patel et al.
The finding, in our words
Worked case studies of patient-centric sampling deployed in pharmaceutical drug development: how sponsors have implemented it, rather than whether it is possible.
A paraphrase to the Library’s standard, never the abstract. The source is one link away and is always the authority.
A 2025 review maps 28 microsampling devices, from dried spots and volumetric absorptive tips to upper-arm liquid capillary collectors, and names what a laboratory must control before their results are used: the haematocrit effect in non-volumetric dried samples, interstitial fluid from finger milking, volume, haemolysis and transport stability. Regulators on both sides of the Atlantic ask for the same two things, a device the patient can use safely and a sample fit for the test.
An IQ Consortium position paper from sponsor scientists positioning patient-centric sampling as the enabling technology for decentralised trials, and stating that a bridging study against conventional sampling “has quickly been established as a regulatory expectation”.
Maass et al., Clinical and Translational Science · source ↗
A study of 292 patients found that the slopes of home-collected stimulated dried blood spot C-peptide levels over six months predicted 12-month venous mixed-meal tolerance test results, P<0.001. This shows decentralised microsampling can monitor beta-cell function, though further validation is required to confirm its reliability and broader applicability.
Hendriks et al., Diabetes care (paywalled) · source ↗
Targeted proteomic evaluation of a novel finger-prick dried plasma device demonstrated strong quantitative correlation with conventional plasma (R = 0.99) and precision under 10% CV for 80% of quantified peptides across healthy donors. Quantified targets also remained stable during room temperature storage for up to 232 days, supporting its use for decentralised biomarker monitoring.
Merck describes a digitally enabled, patient-centric trial initiative that combines outpatient PK/PD sampling with digital biomarkers and smart dosing technologies to improve exposure-response understanding and reduce patient burden, while acknowledging adoption challenges.
Dockendorf et al., Clinical and translational science · source ↗