Patient Centric Sampling - Building Access Equity

Explore the development and implementation of capillary blood sampling as a patient-centric approach to phlebotomy in this 56-minute webinar from The Royal College of Pathologists. Learn how capillary sampling provides a practical and compassionate alternative to invasive desensitisation processes, particularly for Learning Disability patient populations, ensuring blood testing becomes accessible, equitable, and tailored to individual patient needs. Discover practical considerations for introducing this innovative approach in clinical laboratories, including creating standard operating procedures, implementing staff training programs, establishing quality assurance protocols, and adapting sample handling workflows. Understand the critical importance of collaboration across primary care, mental health services, and device manufacturers in embedding sustainable patient-focused practices. Gain insights from clinical experience at Morecambe Bay Hospitals NHS Trust on how patient-centric sampling can reshape laboratory medicine by placing people, not processes, at the heart of diagnostics, making "blood testing for all" a standard of care. The session is presented by Dr Karen Perkins PhD, FRCPath, Principal Clinical Scientist at Morecambe Bay Hospitals NHS Trust, who specializes in capillary sampling and enabling access to blood tests for underserved populations and co-chairs the Patient centric Preanalytics Special Interest Group under the Association for Laboratory Medicine.