October 11, 2022 – Home lab testing has been around for many years, since the first glucose monitors were introduced for home monitoring in the early 1970s. They were intended to serve the needs for diagnosed diabetics to help improve glucose levels through frequent monitoring. Many easy-to-use general health screening tests followed, including routine urinalysis for general health. Fecal occult blood tests for colorectal cancer then came along. Later on, a variety of tests for abused drugs joined the portfolio. Pre-COVID there were many over-the-counter home tests for general health and wellness, diabetic monitoring and even screening for abused drugs.
Providing ease of use and an easy to acquire sample, they had one thing in common: they were intended to be used to provide information specific to a single patient as opposed to diagnosing a communicable condition that could be transmitted to others. As a result, while not reporting a result of these tests always reduces data useful to the healthcare system in general and to the patient’s care giver specifically, ramifications of the absence or presence of the data in the patient’s record only influenced the path to care of a specific individual.
Fast forward to the last 18 months and COVID has, once again, changed the landscape dramatically. COVID has created a far broader level of access to home testing and increased public awareness to the value of home tests. At the same time, several different companies have begun offering home sample collection tests for sexually transmitted infections (STIs). There is even at least one test for HIV that can be performed and read at home.
No one can argue that these trends are not valuable to the general public, the healthcare community and those of us who manufacture or distribute these important tests. But, nothing is free and they do come with some costs that balance patient responsibility, privacy and access to data valuable for treatment and epidemiological purposes. In the latest issue of Repertoire, Jim Poggi explores the advantages of the emerging technology, discuss some of the challenges their deployment creates, and even suggest some ways to take a large leap forward and attempt to fill some of the gaps in data availability that currently exist.