The societal impact of implementing an at-home blood sampling device for chronic care patients: patient preferences and cost impact
Lingervelder et al.
The finding, in our words
A combined patient-preference and cost analysis of an at-home blood sampling device in chronic care, covering both what patients choose and what the shift costs the system.
A paraphrase to the Library’s standard, never the abstract. The source is one link away and is always the authority.
The authors observe that self-sampling devices for capillary blood are gaining traction as a patient-preferred alternative to venous collection, with one centre reporting a 15 percent reduction in laboratory test volumes when local collection was offered. They argue that successful integration into total laboratory automation requires addressing cost, transport regulations and sample volume adequacy while ensuring robust device design and seamless workflow compatibility.
This systematic review of 67 studies involving 34,739 kidney disease patients found dried blood microsampling was mainly used for immunosuppressant therapeutic drug monitoring and kidney function assessment. The approach offered cost savings, was preferred by patients for home self-collection, and provides a patient-centric opportunity to upscale longitudinal sampling and reduce participation bias in decentralised kidney disease research.
This review surveys published LC-MS/MS methods that use dried blood microsampling for therapeutic drug monitoring of immunosuppressants in transplantation, chemotherapy and autoimmune disease, finding that volumetric dried blood samples can replace conventional venous draws for home sampling and improve patient quality of life. The authors discuss pre-analytical considerations, clinical applicability, cost-effectiveness, harmonisation gaps and patient perception, concluding that obstacles to routine clinical implementation remain despite growing methodological maturity.
In adult kidney transplant patients, adding DBS home sampling to usual care did not reduce outpatient visits or per-visit costs versus usual care alone, though most patients were willing to use DBS if it cut hospital attendances; logistical optimisation of mailing and timely analysis is required to realise travel and cost benefits.