How Sanguine Bioscience’s In-Home Specimen Collection Allows Clinical Research to Continue in the Face of the Coronavirus Crisis
The coronavirus pandemic has altered virtually every aspect of life. Pharmaceutical research, specifically clinical trials, are no exception. To slow the virus’ spread, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended social distancing – essentially, avoiding close contact with others. Yet clinical trials typically require patients to make frequent visits to hospital settings, where a number of sick individuals may be present, increasing their risk of infection.
But researchers needn’t stall their clinical trials until the pandemic subsides. Those whose trials require non-invasive patient samples have an option: Sanguine Biosciences’ in-home specimen collection, which involves acquiring samples from patients within the comfort of their own homes, removing concerns about them traveling to, and remaining in, a hospital setting.
Sanguine is also taking heightened precautions regarding in-home specimen collection to ensure the safety of patients, as well as the mobile health workers who collect the samples. The protocol for mobile health workers has been updated in light of the novel coronavirus pandemic, requiring them to wear additional protective equipment and cancel in-home collections if they feel sick.
In addition, Sanguine has established extra screening requirements for patients to further protect them from exposure. Those who have traveled outside of the United States within the last 30 days, or have been in contact with someone with a confirmed or suspected novel coronavirus infection will need to postpone their in-home collection date.
It’s important for researchers to continue conducting clinical trials, even amid global crises such as this one. Otherwise, patients will miss their visits, which can cause deviations from the protocol that can compromise the integrity of the data and quality of the results. Missing visits – which often include procedures to monitor patient safety – can also increase the risk for adverse events. Sanguine allows researchers to avoid these delays and keep collecting data that can be crucial to not only the study results, but also patient health. This way, they can move forward with their clinical trials, despite the far-reaching ramifications of the current pandemic.
Sanguine Biosciences is a Los Angeles-based technology company that challenges the traditional clinical research model by providing a mobile, nationwide collection of multiple sample typesfrom patients’ own homes. Reducing on-site visits helps lower patient burden, a major barrier to study recruitment and retention. Sanguine also offers same-day delivery of blood samples for patient populations located within four hours of the research facility, as well as specialized in-home extraction protocols. Together, these capabilities yield time and costs savings for researchers while ultimately empowering patients.
