Home-Based Alzheimer's Blood Testing Shows Promise, but Collecting Quality Samples Remains a Challenge
Could older adults one day participate in Alzheimer's screening without leaving home? Researchers behind the European PREDICTOM project are exploring that possibility through remote blood collection, but new findings suggest that the biggest hurdle may be getting a good blood sample in the first place.
Photo: Capitainer
At the Alzheimer's Association International Conference (AAIC) 2026, researchers presented interim results from the poster "Blood-based Biomarker Signatures in a Population at Risk of Alzheimer's Disease", led by Verena Pikulski, Johanna Mitterreiter, Anna-Katharine Brem, Zunera Khan and colleagues from the PREDICTOM Consortium.
The study is part of a broader effort to develop scalable, home-based approaches for identifying people at risk of Alzheimer's disease. Participants aged 50 and older were mailed finger-prick blood collection kits and asked to collect blood samples themselves at home before returning them to a central laboratory for analysis.
The concept is attractive due to its novelty and potential to facilitate earlier dementia diagnosis through the non-invasive assessment of blood-brain barrier dysfunction in Alzheimer's disease. Home-based testing could reduce the need for clinic visits, increase access to research participation, and support the future development of population-level dementia screening approaches.
Initial findings indicate that self-collected blood sampling may be challenging for some older adults due to practical barriers, existing health conditions, and physical or cognitive difficulties.
Researchers evaluated 619 dried plasma spots collected from 313 participants across study sites in the United Kingdom, Germany, and Norway. Only 223 samples met the required quality criteria, corresponding to an overall success rate of 36%. Success rates varied by site, ranging from 27% in the UK to 50% in Norway.
While more than half of participants were able to successfully produce at least one usable sample, the results indicate that obtaining reliable capillary blood specimens remains a significant challenge, even when detailed written and video instructions are provided.
Importantly, the study showed that laboratory analysis was feasible once a valid sample was obtained. The researchers were able to measure Alzheimer's-related blood biomarkers from the usable samples. However, the findings suggest that the limiting factor is currently the sample collection process, not the laboratory technology itself.
The results carry an important message for the future of remote healthcare. If blood-based biomarkers are to become part of home-based dementia screening, researchers will need to develop collection methods that are easier, more reliable, and better suited to older populations.
The PREDICTOM team envisions a future where people can complete cognitive assessments, eye-tracking tasks, questionnaires, and biological sampling from their own homes. This study suggests that this vision remains achievable, but that improving the usability of capillary blood collection may be a crucial step before such programs can be deployed at scale.
For now, the poster offers a valuable reality check: the science behind blood biomarkers is advancing rapidly, but successful implementation will depend just as much on solving practical challenges as on developing new laboratory tests.
Click here to view posters presented at AAIC 2026 conference.
Johanna Mitterreiter, Clinical and Technology Innovation, Siemens Healthineers AG, Forchheim, Germany
