Raising the standards for capillary blood collection, Tasso+ is a micro-sampling device, providing a userfriendly and virtually painless alternative to lancets. It improves the clinical integrity and quality of blood, sampled by patients from the comfort of their homes. Patient Engagement Regular blood testing can enhance the monitoring of health conditions, with proactive reporting of symptoms, disease progression and treatment efficacy, overall improving patient outcomes. However, fostering active engagement from patients can be challenging so empowering them to sample effectively from the comfort of their home is a positive step. With convenience for patients and healthcare providers, it offers a time and cost-effective approach to streamlining clinical pathways. Sampling venous blood within patient homes requires a visit from a trained phlebotomist or nurse, which can be costly and time-consuming. Fortunately, capillary blood specimens can be collected from a patient’s own home, with lancets often used to prick their finger and ‘milk’ drops of blood into a collection tube. Sample Standardisation Under clear guidance, many patients can collect adequate volumes of capillary blood for analysis via this method. However, sample standardisation remains a major challenge with finger prick kits. They rely on clear communication of instructions for sampling success, such as ‘soaking hands in warm water’ and ‘wiping away the first drop of blood’, to patients from a wide range of demographics. Understanding these steps is crucial for collecting high-quality samples, yet specimen viability solely depends on patients accurately following these instructions. Addressing these challenges, Tasso+ is intuitively designed with wide scale usability in mind, allowing patients to easily sample high-grade, laboratory viable capillary blood specimens, at home. After warming and cleaning their arm, users simply adhere the device to their arm and press down on the button to begin capillary blood collection. Tasso’s patient-centric design eliminates many user difficulties associated with finger prick sampling, such as correct lancet placement, wiping away the first blood drop and directing blood drops into collection tubes. It enables high-quality samples to be simply and conveniently collected by the patient, with reduced apprehension. Patient Study Affirming the positive impact of Tasso on the user experience, a randomised control study assessed the accuracy and tolerability of capillary blood self-sampling methods in rheumatoid arthritis patients1. All patients had venous blood drawn by a phlebotomist andwere then subsequently split into groups, receiving either a Tasso+, or a finger prick blood collection kit for self-sampling, referred to as upper arm (UA) or Finger Prick (FP) groups respectively. Patients allocated Tasso kits, reported experiencing less pain compared with having venous blood taken and were more likely to promote capillary blood sampling to other patients, demonstrating their favourability towards capillary sampling using Tasso. Furthermore, when examining the reliability of capillary blood sampling compared with venous draw samples, excellent agreement was observed for all analytes when assessing inflammatory markers and autoantibody levels in patients. Overall, this study promotes the feasibility of remote capillary blood sampling to obtain accurate results for patients and suggests a higher patient acceptance when using the Tasso+ micro-sampling device. Introducing Tasso+ An Innovative Patient Centric Capillary Blood Collection Device Enhancing the Clinical Value of Home Sampling Chloe Bishop, Product Manager, Alpha Laboratories Ltd. 8 Leading Edge
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