Remote fertility care: Are patients prepared to forego physician proximity in favor of accessibility?
Collado et al.
The finding, in our words
A survey of 146 Brazilian infertility patients found that 88.3% were willing to perform ultrasounds at home provided image quality and diagnostic accuracy matched clinic-based examinations, and identified patients already familiar with assisted reproductive technology processes as the most suitable candidates for remote fertility monitoring.
A paraphrase to the Library’s standard, never the abstract. The source is one link away and is always the authority.
This proof-of-concept study demonstrated that patients with inflammatory bowel disease could successfully perform capillary blood microsampling at home with high analytical success rates, and a majority preferred this decentralised approach over hospital venous draws.
In a 20-person proof-of-concept pilot among veterans with HIV, remote self-collection of dried blood spots for phosphatidylethanol monitoring was feasible and acceptable, with high return and analysis rates and positive feedback; a small first step toward decentralised alcohol biomarker monitoring rather than proof of it.
Capillary fingerstick sampling showed high correlation and agreement with venous sampling for serum AMH but with proportional bias, so it may improve access to testing yet should not be considered fully interchangeable without further validation.
Home DBS sampling gave testosterone results that agreed well with venous blood in men on intramuscular testosterone undecanoate, but showed falsely high values in those using topical gel, likely from skin contamination. Patients preferred home collection for its convenience, suggesting DBS is viable for decentralised monitoring of injectable testosterone if patients are taught proper technique.
A randomised trial of 47 participants using a mobile app integrated with remote patient monitoring devices achieved a 74% biomarker submission rate over four weeks, with system usability scores of 77–94 and acceptability exceeding benchmarks, showing the platform is feasible for remote data collection in decentralised clinical trials.