Blood - mobile | Remote blood collection in rural areas

Background

People with chronic illnesses are often treated by doctors and need regular medical appointments. In rural areas, traveling to and organizing appointments can be challenging, especially for older people, employees, and people with childcare and caregiving responsibilities, particularly when specialist practices are located far from their place of residence. Since blood tests are often the only reason patients need to travel, we want to develop and test an innovative home blood collection concept with subsequent laboratory shipping.

Project objectives

The aim is to develop, test, and introduce patient-friendly systems for self-blood collection. Chronically ill people are often cared for by doctors whose practices are frequently located far away. This leads to a great deal of effort when it comes to appointments, even if it is only for a blood test. In these cases, self-blood collection promises enormous savings potential for patients and practices.

Approach

The project involves a systematic review of the specialist literature and synthesis of evidence on the comparability of capillary self-blood sampling with venous blood sampling.

In a further step, blood samples will be taken from approximately 240 patients using self-blood sampling devices, whereby the influence of postal delivery on laboratory values will also be investigated.

Funding

The Blut mobil project is funded by the European Regional Development Fund Lower Saxony.

Cooperation partners

Clinic for Immunology and Rheumatology – Hannover Medical School