The Rise Of At-Home Lab Tests

If I had to name which futuristic healthcare innovations are the easiest to put into practice now that can really make a difference in people’s lives today, I’d say one of those is definitely at-home testing. Although there was a lot of professional criticism towards taking tests at home, with the pandemic all that has changed. Direct-to-consumer tests, which represent the majority of the examples mentioned in the article are different: although we take the sample ourselves at home, the specimen is sent to a certified laboratory, where it is analysed by professionals with professional equipment, and we, consumers, will receive the results directly from the lab. 

EverlyWell and other companies like LetsGetChecked, MyLabBox or 23andme provide tools to make lab tests at home, aiming to be faster and cheaper than official laboratories. We touched the base of their issues in an earlier article on blood testing, but my original conclusion there, that “point-of-care, as well as home lab testing, will be the most significant advancement in the field – completely changing the methods used in primary care and diagnostics” is still a utopia instead of our everyday reality. As 1 in every 8 Scot is living with heart disease, making testing that easy – no need to make hospital appointments, no need to travel, no waiting for the results – can make a real difference. The future of at-home testing will drastically change in the coming years. At-home laboratory testing has its obvious advantages. From Theranos to home lab test kits Almost exactly 7 years ago, in June 2015, Julia Cheek, who was, in her words “probably the least qualified person to start a healthcare startup” grounded a company focusing on at-home lab tests.