Evolution of Blood Sample Transportation and Monitoring Technologies

The coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has shed light on the need to make testing more accessible to underserved populations. At the same time, recent partnerships between retail giants and large reference laboratories for transport of testing supplies by drones to remote areas has made this goal seem more tangible. Clinical laboratories have long benefited from innovation in other industries when it comes to automation and specimen delivery. Pneumatic tube systems (PTSs) were first introduced in the 19th century and were primarily used by the postal service, department stores, stock markets, and banks. Upon improvements in these delivery systems that allowed for controlled airflow to slow down container delivery, PTSs became routinely integrated into hospitals and have since revolutionized specimen and blood product delivery. Further optimization of these systems is under way, with some hospitals in Europe now starting to use single-tube transport PTSs. Other specimen transportation modes that are commonly used today include robots and courier services that utilize delivery vehicles such as vans, trucks, and planes. More recent changes in the healthcare landscape, such as hospital and laboratory consolidations, as well as awareness of healthcare disparities in remote and underserved populations, have created a need for faster, more frequent and longer distance specimen delivery. Emerging modes of specimen transport, which include unmanned vehicles, such as driverless cars and drones (unmanned aerial vehicles), may help address this need. These transportation modes are already being used in the film, mining, and agriculture industries. However, adoption of these technologies in healthcare is slow relative to other industries since transportation of clinical specimens requires validation that is not only environment-specific, but also specimen- and analyte-specific. Currently, regulations or best practice guidelines that guide laboratories in validating various sample transportation modes are lacking, and this is an area that needs much attention.