Is a drop of blood enough to detect intolerances and diseases?
Getty Images / TEK IMAGE, MarkHatfield, Collage: Startup scene

For 84 percent of all employees in Germany, health is the top priority. Even before family, friends and financial security. More and more people want to understand their bodies better and lead a healthy life without having to put up with long waiting times and impersonal doctor's visits. This is exactly where many startups come in: with blood tests for home use and personalized lifestyle recommendations.

But how reliable are these tests really? And how sustainable are the startups' business models? We took a closer look at the German blood testing market and spoke to experts.

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How reliable are the tests?

Andreas Bobrowski, chairman of the Professional Association of German Laboratory Physicians, is critical of the accuracy of these blood tests. “In terms of quality, home tests are significantly inferior to laboratory tests because the test execution is naturally fraught with certain problems and pre-analytical errors can occur. There is also no quality control,” he explains. There are three problems with home blood tests. Firstly, errors can occur in the indication presentation. This means that patients choose the wrong test. Secondly, the most common source of error is pre-analytics, i.e. the preparation for the test and the blood draw. 75 percent of all errors occur here, says Bobrowski.

Source: https://www.businessinsider.de/gruenderszene/business/longevity-ist-sexy-fuer-praevention-chancen-challenges-und-expertenmeinungen-zu-bluttest-startups-8962354/

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