Drawbridge Health and the Medical Research Council (MRC) Epidemiology Unit, University of Cambridge announced the use of the OneDraw Blood Collection Device for remote blood sample collection.
This is for a large-scale surveillance study currently being conducted to assess the prevalence of previous infection with Covid-19.
As the pandemic has created restrictions for normal contact between researchers and research volunteers, remote, non-contact blood collection is critical for delivering fit-for-purpose samples to the clinical testing laboratory in a safe and efficient way.
Launched in July 2020, the study has recruited 4,000 participants, is led by Professor Nick Wareham, Director of the MRC Epidemiology Unit and Chief Investigator of the Fenland COVID-19 Study.
The main focus of this study is to quantify the proportion of people who have been previously infected with COVID-19 in the Fenland cohort, which is broadly representative of the population of Cambridgeshire, a county in the East of England.
OneDraw Blood Collection Device is being used in the study to obtain remote blood samples from participants for repeated Covid-19 serological testing over a 9-12 month period.
Samples at home
The device allows study participants to collect blood samples at home, which can then be sent to the clinical testing laboratory for analysis, without the need for face-to-face interaction with a study team member, thus minimizing virus exposure and potential spread.
This large-scale surveillance study was initiated out of the positive results obtained from an earlier feasibility study for COVID-19 serological testing that demonstrated the suitability of using the OneDraw device for clinical studies and clinical trials in a real world setting.
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OneDraw device was successfully administered by lay users who then mailed the samples to a clinical testing laboratory via the regular postal system. In comparison against venipuncture or fingerstick, the OneDraw device was associated with significantly less reported pain and was the preferred modality of blood draw for 76 per cent of participants.
(With inputs from The OnLook News Research Bureau)
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