A new study suggests one in four patients might never make it to the lab for blood work, but the emergence of at-home testing is a game-changer

When you leave your doctor’s office clutching a test requisition form, there’s a good chance you’ll never make it to the lab.

That piece of paper reminding you to book a routine blood test might never get the chance to help you avoid a surgery or even save your life.

Because when you’re forced to wait months for an appointment and then have to travel across town to make it to the lab, it might not seem like it’s worth the hassle.

Instead, you’ll join the estimated one in four patients cited in a new study who are given a requisition but never take the test.

The study, published in 2021, was based on patients from the Chinook Primary Care Network in Alberta, who received lab requisitions for a complete blood count. Out of 1,607 patients, 70.4 per cent completed the requisition within one year, with over half (50.5 per cent) completed within two weeks. However, 592 patients (26 per cent) did not complete their requisition. The study concluded that family physicians should follow up with their patients if their lab requests have not been fulfilled within four months.

Reminders from your doctor’s office might help persuade some of the more forgetful among us of the importance of getting that test requisition completed. But the emergence of mobile testing may hold the greatest potential for removing barriers to testing and increasing access. 

Instead of waiting months for an appointment and travelling across town to a clinic, those willing to pay can take the test in the comfort of their own home. In addition to being more convenient, it’s also a lot more discreet for those who value privacy or feel uncomfortable going into a public setting to be tested for a sexually transmitted infection, for example. At-home testing kits are another viable option.

Recent studies have found that testing rates for at-home screening of STIs are up to 11 times greater than the rates for clinic-based screening.

“I was on a trip to South America in January 2017 when I learned about a service for getting lab testing done at home. I thought it was a genius idea and went to work developing a similar service for the Canadian market that same month,” said Peter Verburg, co-founder and CEO of Scrubs, a Calgary, Alberta-based company that offers mobile testing.