The Supply of Investigational Medicinal Product and Management of Study Materials for Decentralized Participants-Insights from the Trials@Home RADIAL Proof-of-Concept Trial

The study found that although participants preferred patient-centric microsampling devices for home use, the agreement with venous plasma for measuring CRP and cytokines was inconsistent, indicating that further validation is required before these methods replace standard venipuncture.

Limited agreement of cytokines and CRP through patient-centric microsampling compared to venipuncture in healthy adults — Tuttle et al., Bioanalysis (paywalled) · source ↗

• dct
• venous-agreement
• acceptability
• blood
• dbs
• self-collection
• dried
• biomarkers

A machine learning model called Remote Control was trained on 2685 blood samples to predict change due to instability, enabling accurate calibration of results to approximate the time zero value at collection. With calibration, unprocessed whole blood could be transported for up to 9 days under ambient conditions and temperatures between 3.4 and 47.4 degrees Celsius, achieving agreement with CLIA TEa between 98.1 and 100 per cent and expanding the catalog of tests available for at-home collection.

Prolonging Sample Stability with Machine Learning Expands the Catalog of Tests Available for Mail-In Capillary Blood Collected At-Home — O'Meara et al., Analytical chemistry (paywalled) · source ↗

• dct
• blood
• self-collection
• capillary
• liquid
• validation
• biomarkers

This study found strong concordance between capillary samples collected via the Tasso device and standard venous draws for VirScan serology, indicating that self-collected samples are a practical alternative for decentralised research. The authors advise against interchanging these collection methods within a single longitudinal study to avoid introducing technical variability.

Assessing VirScan serosurvey epitope profiling variability between in-clinic venous blood draw and capillary blood self-sampling device — Sircy et al., Microbiology spectrum · source ↗

• dct
• venous-agreement
• blood
• self-collection
• serology
• capillary
• liquid

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.

An Examination of Perceptions and Usage of Dried Blood Spot Biosampling Technology for HIV Viral Load Collection Among Youth with HIV — Gurung et al., AIDS and behavior (paywalled) · source ↗

• blood
• dried
• dbs
• self-collection
• acceptability
• dct
• serology

This developer study reports that a self-collection kit interfacing with a BD Microtainer produced RNA of sufficient quality and yield for transcriptomic analysis in a pilot group and a longitudinal rheumatology cohort. Most participants found the device easy to use, supporting its utility for decentralised blood sampling.

To the homeRNAmax: Developing an Improved Blood Self-Collection and Stabilization Platform for Remote Transcriptomic Studies — Eakman et al., Analytical chemistry (paywalled) · source ↗

• dct
• stabilised
• blood
• self-collection
• bd-microtainer
• liquid
• validation
• biomarkers