In recent years, the healthcare industry has seen increasing interest and expanding implementation of telemedicine and remote options for care. The lab testing industry has long relied on remote sampling for its convenience and reduced costs. Generally, laboratories can use their current instrumentation to process and analyze self-collected samples similarly to in-office collected samples, while providing robust results. There are 2 common methods of remote sampling that are ideal for such a need: dried blood sample and saliva sample collections.

Remote dried blood sampling provides a number of advantages over current laboratory logistics. First, it significantly reduces materials costs for sample collection (e.g. no large equipment, no nurse, and no laboratory is needed), and secondly, it significantly reduces shipping and storage costs (e.g. no ice or freezing for collection and storage is required). Thus, a sample collection kit can be used to collect samples anywhere, anytime.

Similar to dried blood, saliva has been used in the clinic for many years. Its advantages are also similar to dried blood collection: safe, non-invasive, affordable, and accurate. It has been used routinely in children, who find spitting more fun compared to venipuncture, which often incites fear. Saliva can often be used as a whole, untreated biological fluid, without the complicated sample extraction procedure that is required for dried blood, which minimizes potential sources of error and the complexity of the procedure. Saliva can also be stored at ambient temperature for extended periods, depending on the collection device. Devices that filter out bacteria and enzymes or add molecules to promote stability are often used.

The PanoHealth sample collection kits for volumetric dried blood and saliva are optimized for antibody and protein analysis, or RNA and DNA analysis and are ideal options for such remote collection and should be a part of opportunities that expand testing and improve health and wellness.