Feasibility and lessons learned on remote trial implementation from TestBoston, a fully remote, longitudinal, large-scale COVID-19 surveillance study
Naz-McLean et al.
The finding, in our words
A fully remote home-testing model using dried blood spot self-collection and nasal swabs enrolled over 10,000 adults and achieved high retention, but demographic inequities emerged, indicating that remote trials can scale research and improve accessibility while requiring intensive participant support and robust technology to maintain engagement and data quality.
A paraphrase to the Library’s standard, never the abstract. The source is one link away and is always the authority.
In a pilot mixed-methods study of youth with HIV, mailed HemaSpot-HF kits enabled home-based dried blood spot collection that participants found feasible and acceptable, supporting remote viral load monitoring and a self-management model for decentralised care.
Gurung et al., AIDS and behavior (paywalled) · source ↗
This narrative review surveys remote biospecimen collection products for sexual health research, including dried blood spots and volumetric absorptive microsampling, and concludes that successful implementation needs a multidisciplinary, participant-centred team with sufficient time allocated to the complexities of collection procedures and processes.
Horvath et al., AIDS and behavior (paywalled) · source ↗
A study of older rural US patients found that 96 to 98 per cent of self-collected dried blood spot specimens were successfully analysed for HIV viral load, with high acceptability. However, concordance between self-reported and measured viral load was only 69 to 82 per cent, highlighting the value of objective decentralised microsampling over self-reporting.
Walsh et al., AIDS and behavior (paywalled) · source ↗
A statewide remote seroprevalence study using at-home dried blood spot kits achieved a 71.6% sample return rate from registered households, with success dependent on integrated data systems, responsive participant support, and strong health department partnerships. This demonstrates feasibility of large-scale decentralised microsampling for public health surveillance.
Lim et al., BMC medical research methodology · source ↗
Self-collected dried blood spots were used to assess HIV status at 12 months in 1168 participants. Integration of sexual and reproductive health services increased linkage to HIV prevention care within 60 days (adjusted odds ratio 1·68) compared with standard referral, whereas peer support had no effect.
Shahmanesh et al., The lancet. HIV (paywalled) · source ↗