Automatic for the people: an introduction to self-collected capillary blood testing
Abstract
Venepuncture is traditionally considered the gold standard for blood sample collection and remains one of the most common procedures in clinical practice. However, the need for specialised personnel and resources is a limiting factor that affects the efficiency of downstream clinical pathways. Self-collected capillary blood sampling has emerged as a practical alternative to venepuncture in various settings, potentially promoting a patient-centred, personalised, and cost-effective healthcare model. Nonetheless, several operational challenges remain, including limited data on analyte stability and laboratory automation. Despite these challenges, the incorporation of self-collected capillary blood sampling into patient pathways seems inevitable, and routine clinical laboratories should consider adopting this approach to deliver blood services from the hospital to the community. Here, we introduce capillary blood testing, summarise its potential role in healthcare provision, and provide an overview of the areas to consider for its successful implementation.
Formats available
You can view the full content in the following formats:
References
1.
Schmetzer C, Vogt E, Stellar L et al. Self-collection of capillary blood and saliva to determine COVID-19 vaccine immunogenicity in patients with immune-mediated inflammatory diseases and health professionals. Front Public Health 10, 994770 (2022).
2.
Howells A, Munro K, Foulkes S et al. Cohort retention in a pandemic response study: lessons from the SARS-CoV2 Immunity & Reinfection Evaluation (SIREN) study. BMC Med. Res. Methodol. 25(1), 27 (2025).
3.
Hettiarachchi N, Blick D, Coleman T et al. Evaluating blood sampling strategies within the SIREN study: the experience from a large cohort of healthcare workers in the UK. BMC Med. Res. Methodol. 25(1), 165 (2025).
4.
Wentzensen N, Massad LS, Clarke MA et al. Enduring Consensus Cervical Cancer Screening and Management Guidelines Committee. Self-collected vaginal specimens for HPV testing: recommendations from the enduring consensus cervical cancer screening and management guidelines committee. J. Low. Genit. Tract Dis. 29(2), 144–152 (2025).
5.
GOV.UK Department of Health & Social Care. Market engagement for transdermal capillary blood sampling solutions. (Accessed 13 April 2025). https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/012031-2026
6.
Brown L, Byrne RL, Fraser A et al. Self-sampling of capillary blood for SARS-CoV-2 serology. Sci. Rep. 11(1), 7754 (2021).
7.
Nwankwo L, McLaren K, Donovan J et al. Utilisation of remote capillary blood testing in an outpatient clinic setting to improve shared decision making and patient and clinician experience: a validation and pilot study. BMJ Open Qual. 10, e001192 (2021).
8.
Groenendijk WN, Griffin TP, Islam MN et al. Remote capillary blood collection for HbA1c measurement during the COVID-19 pandemic: a laboratory and patient perspective. Diabet. Med. 39, e14897 (2022).
9.
The Patients Association. Patient experience of diagnostics report (2024). (Accessed 24 July 2025). https://www.patients-association.org.uk/Handlers/Download.ashx?IDMF=224074b2-a4cc-4b58-986c-69635ec57e3a
10.
Syed ST, Gerber BS, Sharp LK. Traveling towards disease: transportation barriers to health care access. J. Community Health 38, 976–993 (2013).
11.
Dineen-Griffen S, Garcia-Cardenas V, Williams K, Benrimoj SI. Helping patients help themselves: a systematic review of self-management support strategies in primary health care practice. PLoS ONE 14(8), e0220116 (2019).
12.
Zarbl J, Eimer E, Gigg C et al. Remote self-collection of capillary blood using upper arm devices for autoantibody analysis in patients with immune-mediated inflammatory rheumatic diseases. RMD Open 8, e002641 (2022).
13.
Collier BB, Brandon WC, Chappell MR et al. Comparing capillary blood collection technologies: assessing patient experience, device performance, & clinical accuracy. Bioanalysis 17(21), 1329–1336 (2025).
14.
Poland DCW, Cobbaert CM. Blood self-sampling devices: innovation, interpretation and implementation in total lab automation. Clin. Chem. Lab. Med. 63, 3–13 (2024).
15.
Capillary Blood Testing Project - First wave of claim extensions MN-RDS-CoreLab-2025-381. (Accessed 12 March 2026). https://productandsafetycare.roche.com/
16.
yourbiohealth. (Accessed 13 April 2026) https://yourbiohealth.com/
17.
Tasso International Solutions. (Accessed 13 April 2026). https://www.tassoinc.com/international
18.
BD Microtainer® Blood Collection Tubes. (Accessed 13 April 2026). https://www.bd.com/en-uk/products-and-solutions/products/product-families/bd-microtainer-blood-collection-tubes
19.
BD. eIFU website. (Accessed 13 April 2026) https://eifu.bd.com/hcp/GB
20.
greiner. BIO-ONE. Minicollect® blood collection tubes. (Accessed 13 April 2026). https://shop.gbo.com/en/england/products/preanalytics/capillary-blood-collection/minicollect-tubes/
21.
Sarstedt. (Accessed 13 April 2026). https://www.sarstedt.com/en/products/diagnostic/capillary-blood/tubes/
22.
SelfSafeSure. (Accessed 13 April 2026). https://selfsafesure.com/
23.
Geujar R, Treffers D, Roelefs M et al. Validation of (self-collected) capillary blood using a topper collection system as alternative for venous sampling for 15 common clinical chemistry analytes. Clin. Chem. Lab. Med. 63(11), 2209–2217 (2025).
24.
Parikh M, Wimmer C, DiPasquale C et al. Evaluation of a novel capillary blood collection system for blood sampling in nontraditional settings as compared with currently marketed capillary and venous blood collection systems for selected general chemistry analytes. J. Appl. Lab. Med. 10, 639–652 (2025).
25.
Zarbl J, Eimer E, Gigg C et al. Remote self-collection of capillary blood using upper arm devices for autoantibody analysis in patients with immune-mediated inflammatory rheumatic diseases. Rheumatic Musculoskeletal Diseases OPEN 8, e002641 (2022).
26.
Silliman E, Chung EH, Fitzpatrick E et al. Evaluation of at-home serum anti-Müllerian hormone testing: a head-to-head comparison study. Reprod. Biol. Endocrinol. 20, 131 (2022).
27.
Voigt KR, Wullaert L, Gobardhan PD et al. Feasibility, reliability and satisfaction of (automated) capillary carcinoembryonic antigen measurements for future home-based blood sampling: the prospective CASA-I study. Colorectal Dis. 26, 1560–1568 (2024).
28.
Hendelman T, Chaudhary A, LeClair AC et al. Self-collection of capillary blood using Tasso-SST devices for anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibody testing. PLoS One 16, e0255841 (2021).
29.
Dasari H, Smyrnova A, Leng J et al. Feasibility, acceptability, and safety of a novel device for self-collecting capillary blood samples in clinical trials in the context of the pandemic and beyond. PLoS One 19, e0304155 (2024).
30.
Wickremsinhe E, Fantana A, Berthier E et al. Standard venipuncture vs a capillary blood collection device for the prospective determination of abnormal liver chemistry. J. Appl. Lab. Med. 8, 535–550 (2023).
31.
Hameed A, Ferruzzi MG, Kay CD et al. Comparison of the capillary and venous blood plasma lipidomes: validation of self-collected blood for plasma lipidomics. J. Lipid Res. 66, 100755 (2025).
32.
Doeleman MJH, Koster A, Esseveld A et al. Comparison of capillary finger stick and venous blood sampling for 34 routine chemistry analytes: potential for in hospital and remote blood sampling. Clin. Chem. Lab. Med. 63, 747–752 (2024).
33.
Woolley T, Rutter E, Staudenmaier M. Comparability and stability of serum creatinine concentration in capillary and venous blood. Br. J. Biomed. Sci. 80, 11402 (2023).
34.
Ansari S, Abdel-Malek M, Kenkre J et al. The use of whole blood capillary samples to measure 15 analytes for a home-collect biochemistry service during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic: a proposed model from North West London Pathology. Ann. Clin. Biochem. 58, 411–421 (2021).
35.
Sodi R, Young N, Tetucci A et al. Total prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing in capillary samples: proof-of-principle and feasibility study for home self-testing for prostate cancer. J. Appl. Lab. Med. 10, 250–258 (2025).
36.
Vasavan T, Timpson A, Woolley T et al. Systematic reduction in estradiol and testosterone measurements due to serum separator gel in blood collection tubes: implications for at-home fertility testing. J. Appl. Lab. Med. 10, 779–792 (2025).
37.
Rohlfing CL, Hanson S, Tennill AL, Little RR. Effects of whole blood storage on hemoglobin a1c measurements with five current assay methods. Diabetes Technol. Ther. 14(3), 271–275 (2012).
38.
Varcode. (Accessed 13 April 2026). http://www.varcode.com
39.
Tive. (Accessed 13 April 2026). https://www.tive.com/tag
40.
Timestrip®. (Accessed 13 April 2026). https://timestrip.com
41.
He J, Zhang G, Wang Y et al. The possibility of automatic capillary blood testing in routine blood tests: an evaluation of the automatic mode of the Mindray BC-7500 CRP Auto Hematology Analyzer for capillary blood testing. Cardiovasc. Diagn. Ther. 13(3), 465–473 (2023).
42.
Makino Y, Osada K, Sone H et al. Percutaneous absorption of biotin in healthy subjects and in atopic dermatitis patients. J. Nutr. Sci. Vitaminol. (Tokyo) 45, 347–352 (1999).
43.
Dasgupta A. Immunoassay design and biotin interference. Adv. Clin. Chem. 109, 165–183 (2022).
44.
Keevil BG, Tierney DP, Cooper DP et al. Simultaneous and rapid analysis of cyclosporin A and creatinine in finger prick blood samples using liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry and its application in C2 monitoring. Ther. Drug Monit. 24, 757–767 (2002).
45.
Marshall DJ, Kim JJ, Brand S et al. Assessment of tacrolimus and creatinine concentration collected using Mitra microsampling devices. Ann. Clin. Biochem. 57, 389–396 (2020).
46.
Yonan N, Martyszczuk R, Machaal A et al. Monitoring of cyclosporine levels in transplant recipients using self-administered fingerprick sampling. Clin. Transplant. 20, 221–225 (2006).
47.
Whitbread DJ, Nice R, Benyon S et al. Utility and limitations of monitoring kidney transplants using capillary sampling. Clin. Chem. Lab. Med. 63, e44–e47 (2024).
48.
Hoekstra J, Wilpshaar M, Berger S, Doorn J. At-home blood collection for clinical chemistry analyses in a kidney transplant population: a feasibility study. Clin. Chem. Lab. Med. 64(4), 855–886 (2026).
49.
Chee D, Nice R, Hamilton B et al. Patient-led Remote IntraCapillary pharmacokinetic Sampling (fingerPRICKS) for therapeutic drug monitoring in patients with inflammatory bowel disease. J. Crohns Colitis 16, 190–198 (2022).
50.
Atkins M, McGuire P, Balgobin B et al. Haematological point of care testing for clozapine monitoring. J. Psychiatr. Res. 157, 66–71 (2023).
51.
Cross J, Sharma S, John WG et al. Validation and feasibility of a postal system for remote monitoring of HbA1c. BMJ Open Diab. Res. Care 9, e002527 (2021).
52.
Besser REJ, Long AE, Owen KR et al. Transdermal blood sampling for C-peptide is a minimally invasive, reliable alternative to venous sampling in children and adults with type 1 diabetes. Diabetes Care 47, 239–245 (2024).
53.
Marshall DJ, Adaway JE, Hawley JM et al. Quantification of testosterone, androstenedione and 17-hydroxyprogesterone in whole blood collected using Mitra microsampling devices. Ann. Clin. Biochem. 57, 351–359 (2020).
54.
Schröder D, Hafke A, Hummers E et al. Comparison of laboratory results and pain perception in self-sampled capillary blood versus venous blood sampling: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Clin. Biochem. 138, 110965 (2025).
55.
Medical Device Alert (MDA/2020/015). (Accessed 15 Mar 2026). https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5eda591986650c4abe1efd1b/MDA-2020-015_Final.pdf
56.
CLSI EP35. (Accessed 17 Mar 2026). https://clsi.org/shop/standards/ep35/
57.
NHS England. Optimising blood testing in primary care (2021). (Accessed 25 July 2025). B0960-optimising-blood-testing-primary-care.pdf
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Copyright
© 2026 The authors. This work is licensed under the Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Unported License
History
Received: 22 January 2026
Accepted: 14 April 2026
Published online: 29 April 2026
Keywords:
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Article Usage
Article usage data only available from February 2023. Historical article usage data, showing the number of article downloads, is available upon request.
Citations
How to Cite
Automatic for the people: an introduction to self-collected capillary blood testing. (2026) Journal of Comparative Effectiveness Research. DOI: 10.57264/jpc-2026-0002
Export citation
Select the citation format you wish to export for this article or chapter.
Citing Literature
- Karen Perkins, Joanne Kilkenny, Andrew Brown, Thomas Jamieson, Sarah Duffin, Jennifer Pratt, Julia Smith, Comparison of a capillary blood collection device and standard venepuncture for routine clinical biochemistry assays: developing reasonable adjustment phlebotomy for patients with learning disabilities, Journal of Patient Centricity, 10.57264/jpc-2026-0009, 0, 0, (undefined).