HbA1c testing plays a central role in diabetes diagnosis and long-term glucose monitoring. As an established marker of average blood glucose levels over time, HbA1c is one of the most valuable tools for understanding glucose control in individuals with Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes. However, the clinical value of HbA1c testing depends not only on analytical performance, but whether patients can access testing regularly over time. For many people living with diabetes, repeated blood sampling still means attending a doctor’s office, diabetes clinic, hospital, or other healthcare facility.
As healthcare systems and test providers look for more patient-centered and decentralized approaches to care, at-home blood sampling can make routine HbA1c testing easier for patients by reducing the need for repeated clinic visits.
Why regular HbA1c monitoring matters
As described in a previous article, HbA1c reflects average blood glucose levels over the previous 8 to 12 weeks, making it a key marker for monitoring long-term glucose control in individuals with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes.
Regular HbA1c monitoring helps clinicians and patients assess whether diabetes management is on track and whether treatment or lifestyle changes may be needed to support long-term glucose control and reduce the risk of diabetes-related complications. Because HbA1c monitoring is repeated over time, regular in-person sampling can create barriers for patients who need to work around travel logistics, mobility challenges, work, caring responsibilities and access to local healthcare facilities. For these patients, reducing the burden of in-person testing may help make regular monitoring feel less disruptive and easier to sustain in the long run.
When sampling moves closer to the patient
With at-home blood sampling, patients can collect a capillary blood sample at home and return it to a laboratory for analysis, reducing the need to attend a healthcare facility for every test. Dried blood sampling makes this practical because dried blood is much easier to store and transport than liquid blood. For suitable applications, samples can be returned by regular post and processed with less dependence on rapid sample handling.
For HbA1c testing, the sampling format also needs to support reliable quantification. Conventional dried blood spot (DBS) cards can be affected by many factors, including variations in spot size, blood spreading and hematocrit, all of which can make accurate quantification more challenging. Capitainer’s volumetric device B10 addresses this problem by collecting a defined volume of capillary blood into a dried blood format, supporting finger-prick blood collection at home while giving laboratories a more standardized sample format than conventional DBS cards.
This approach has already been evaluated for HbA1c testing in a Swedish hospital laboratory setting. As discussed in one of our publication highlights, HbA1c levels measured from dried blood samples extracted from Capitainer’s device showed excellent agreement with HbA1c levels measured in regular venous blood samples. The study also showed that dried blood samples remained stable at room temperature for at least one month, supporting the feasibility of postal return and decentralized sampling workflows (1).
In an independent evaluation of Capitainer B10 conducted by SKUP, usability was rated as good by both patients and laboratory personnel, while the analytical precision of the device was found to be excellent. A small positive bias relative to venous blood samples was observed, underscoring the importance of local laboratory validation prior to implementation. Such validation may enable appropriate calibration strategies or adjustment factors to account for systematic matrix-related differences between capillary dried blood samples and conventional venous specimens (2). These findings further support the growing body of evidence demonstrating the suitability of Capitainer-based microsampling for HbA1c analysis in both clinical and decentralized testing settings.
Making routine HbA1c testing easier from home
The practical value of at-home HbA1c sampling depends on more than convenience. For test providers, the sampling format must also work in real-world settings, where samples may be collected by patients without direct supervision, stored temporarily at home, returned by post, and processed upon arrival at a laboratory.
For patient-facing HbA1c services, particularly in the UK and U.S., where remote and direct-to-consumer health services are becoming more popular, at-home sampling creates an opportunity to offer a more flexible testing pathway. Instead of requiring patients to attend a clinic for every routine sample collection, laboratories and testing providers can support at-home blood collection while keeping analysis lab-based.
For HbA1c monitoring, regular testing remains essential. Capitainer®B10 supports this by bringing the collection step closer to the patient, while keeping analysis in the laboratory. One example of this approach is First Wellness Testing, which offers HbA1c testing based on home sampling combined with laboratory analysis.
References
- Rollborn N, Larsson A, Kultima K. Analysis of HbA1c using microfluidic card (Capitainer qDBS card) as a pre-step before determination of the HbA1c value with an immunological method, Scandinavian Journal of Clinical and Laboratory Investigation, 2024.
- SKUP. Report from the evaluation SKUP/2025/137. Capitainer B (Capitainer AB), a system for patient self-sampling of capillary blood for dried blood testing. SKUP Scandinavian evaluation of laboratory equipment for point of care testing, 2025. Available at: https://www.skup.org/. Accessed 26 June 2026.