Medical Lab Tests Could Come To You

A full third of patients never follow through with their doctors’ requests to get blood drawn for important tests. What if, instead of schlepping to the lab, the lab came to you? That’s the idea behind Richmond, Virginia-based Iggbo, a startup that aims to make drawing blood for medical tests as easy as ordering car service. Like an “Uber for blood,” Iggbo lets doctors order blood draws at the touch of a smartphone app. A patient then schedules a convenient at-home appointment online, and a phlebotomist gets dispatched.

With Iggbo, compliance rates skyrocket to 98.2 percent. That means millions could receive better long-term care. But it also means something big for the future of healthcare: Thousands of samples could be used to gain insights into the identification and treatment of disease. “If you can democratize access—not only to patients but to science,” says Iggbo co-founder Shaival Kapadia, “you can look at patterns and offer far better preventative care.” Let’s just hope there’s no surge pricing.