What Will Blood Testing Look Like In The Near Future?

The traditional process of blood draw is familiar to everyone. It typically involves visiting a healthcare facility where a professional, such as a nurse or phlebotomist, draws the blood. Patients then wait for results that are often challenging for non-professionals to interpret.?

This analysis aims to explore how this universally recognized procedure has evolved recently and how it is expected to change in the next 5-10 years, especially in the context of digital health.

Initially, blood draw was a purely manual process, requiring skilled professionals for both the drawing and the analysis. The procedure and equipment were standard, and the interpretation of results was limited to laboratory professionals. Let’s take a look at each element of the traditional process and see if/how it changes.

1. Going to the point of care facility

Traditionally, the journey of blood testing begins with a trip to a point of care (POC) facility. This step, once considered indispensable, is undergoing a significant transformation due to the rise of at-home lab tests.?

At-home lab tests represent a paradigm shift in the way blood testing is conducted. Initially, the idea of conducting complex tests outside of a professional healthcare setting was met with skepticism. The shift has been accelerated by various factors, including the COVID-19 pandemic, when the need for social distancing and minimizing exposure to healthcare facilities supported alternative solutions. However, this trend is not a temporary response to the pandemic but a long-term shift in patient preferences and healthcare practices.

As we move forward, the role of POC facilities is likely to evolve. While they will remain crucial for more complex procedures and tests, and for every case that requires large sample sizes, the rise of at-home lab tests suggests a future where many standard blood tests can be conducted without the need for a physical visit to a healthcare provider.?

2. The blood draw process

The actual step of drawing a blood sample is currently undergoing significant changes in two ways.?

DIY blood draws

Firstly, thanks to DIY blood draw kits, patients can now take blood samples at home in just a few minutes. We've previously discussed this, you can read about the technology in detail here. DIY blood draw takes between 5-15 minutes to complete, you can wake up and finish the process by the time your toast and cappuccino are ready.?

The trustworthy initiatives we've seen involve collecting capillary blood from the upper arm using a vacuum. After preparation, the device is attached to the arm, a button is pressed, creating a vacuum, and microneedles/a tiny lancet pricks the skin. In a few minutes, your sample is ready. These devices can collect liquid and dried samples. I tried it and created a short video about the process.?

While this method doesn't reduce the time taken for sampling, it eliminates the need for travel and waiting times. Although not a complete solution for all scenarios, this method has its merits.?

The pandemic has shown that avoiding contact with large groups of patients can be prudent. Moreover, home sampling offers an efficient and convenient method for clinical trials, encouraging patient participation. It is becoming a widely used method for collecting samples for DNA tests, replacing saliva samples, and cheek swabs, with Dante being the first to use dried blood, showing that these small samples are sufficient for their purposes.?

Blood drawing robots arrived

The second major game-changer in the process is the arrival of blood-drawing robots. We will meet them at the traditional point-of-care locations, so the setting remains the same with them, but the role of human staff is changing.?

Robots could potentially draw blood more efficiently than humans, freeing up time for medical staff. However, people often prefer human interaction.?

The potential advantages are obvious: the robot doesn't just guess where the vein is - it actually sees it. Its hands never shake, it never gets tired, and it frees up valuable nurse time. Nurses would still be present to provide empathy and support, but the burden of the technical procedure is not on them. Automation also adds a level of safety for the patient.

A few years ago, we wrote about Veebot, a robot capable of drawing blood quickly and effectively. Since then, the concept has become a reality. In 2022, Vitestro announced their 'Autonomous blood drawing device', which has performed 1500 blood draws on over 1000 patients. They have started a large-scale clinical trial involving 10,000 patients, expected to last two years, with plans to obtain CE marking by the end of 2024.

3. Analysis and intelligent reporting

There are numerous new initiatives in this area, and for good reason. Lab reports, filled with abbreviations, are often incomprehensible to the average patient. Moreover, especially in cases requiring specialists, it can be a lengthy process to reach a doctor and receive their expert opinion. Consequently, it's not surprising that many initiatives have emerged aiming to make the interpretation of lab results easier and faster.

To this end, some have developed AI algorithms to provide analysis services directly to patients: you can input your lab results and receive an evaluation. There are also AI algorithms offered to lab service providers, which they can integrate into their own product offerings, thus aiding in the analysis of test results for their patients.

Furthermore, we can utilise generative AI algorithms, like ChatGPT. While officially such models are not approved for medical use and cannot be recommended for this purpose, they often help uncover valuable insights. This patient with thyroid issues describes (written very likely with ChatGPT) how they used ChatGPT when they couldn't reach their specialist to help interpret their lab values.

To sum up

To sum up, we will see changes in several segments of the trusted old process of blood testing:

• for tests requiring smaller sample sizes (such as allergies, food intolerances, DNA, microbiome), maintaining a point-of-care facility will become unnecessary, as patients will provide samples from home
• The era of incomprehensible lab results is over, as various AI algorithms will help anyone interpret the results
• Laboratories won't disappear, but their roles will change
• Point-of-care blood draws, over time, are expected to be increasingly performed by robots, freeing up human staff for other tasks