Capitainer recently had the opportunity to sit down with Osborn, who lives with type 1 diabetes. We talked about his journey with diabetes and how at-home sampling can be empowering to patients. 

“When I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of 26, it just came out of the blue,” Osborn says. “There is no explanation as to why I got it and it does not run in the family, so it was kind of a trauma for my family and especially for my then-girlfriend, who is now my wife. It was worse for my family because they didn’t know what to expect. Since I had more information I could handle it better.”

Today, Osborn lives with his wife and their three children in Stockholm and works in the IT industry. He meets a doctor and a nurse once per year for follow-up care. If necessary, he could meet them more often, but he is happy with the current intervals because he is able to manage his diabetes very well. In fact, Osborn has never had to call an ambulance because of his diabetes, which he remarks is somewhat rare. 

While there are tools available to help diabetes patients monitor their blood sugar levels, fully automated systems are just beginning to emerge. These automated systems are expected to reach the market soon, but they will come with a high price tag, and will thus not be affordable to all the 783 million people that are projected to be living with diabetes by 2045, according to the International Diabetes Federation. 

HbA1c is a crucial biomarker for long-term glucose control and is widely used in the monitoring of blood glucose control in type 1 and type 2 diabetes. As it stands today, Osborn must book an appointment at the clinic each time he needs a HbA1c test. Blood is collected through a blood draw performed by a nurse. Commenting on the possibility of collecting blood samples for the HbA1c test at home, Osborn says: “If it was possible to take these at home, remotely, it would be good. Every hurdle that can be removed is a welcome improvement.”

Osborn continues: “Ideally, I would like to take the long-term blood sugar test more often than once or twice per year. It provides important information and helps me to keep track of progression and disease management. I would prefer to do this periodically to give a really good indication about how I am doing.” 

“During the pandemic I did not go into the hospital, in part to avoid infections. I also thought I should not take up resources, so during those years I did not keep track of my long-term blood sugar at all. If remote, at-home sampling had been available, it would have helped me. In general, we should strive as patients to do things ourselves, both to get more knowledge and to be more involved, and not take up resources from the current healthcare system. I think that’s the way we need to work.”

Osborn’s view is also supported by national diabetes care guidelines in different countries. For instance, Sweden’s national guidelines recommend interventions that empower the patient and have a positive effect on HbA1c.

Osborn was able to try the quantitative dried blood spot (qDBS) collection device Capitainer®B. He thinks that if his healthcare provider would offer this method for routine home sampling, it would make it easier to take the HbA1c test more frequently and it would further help him to manage the diabetes, while at the same shifting vital healthcare resources to where they are needed the most. 

In fact, recent patient stratification studies have found that diabetes patients were happy with taking DBS samples and prefer home sampling over traditional venous sampling at a medical centre. 

To further underscore the evidence-based utility of DBS for the diabetic patient community, researchers at Uppsala University’s Department of Medical Science in Sweden recently evaluated Capitainer’s quantitative DBS (qDBS) device as a pre-step for HbA1c testing in a Swedish hospital laboratory setting, and found excellent agreement and almost identical results between qDBS and liquid blood. 

The diabetic patient community is very vibrant and it is the involvement and contributions by patients like Osborn that help to drive development and adoption of new technologies that bring down unnecessary hurdles and ultimately improve quality of life.