Drawbridge Health, a Thorne company, is focused on reinventing the blood draw experience. Founded in 2015, Drawbridge’s primary focus is to achieve a comfortable and convenient blood sample collection anytime and anywhere.

By integrating engineering, chemistries, and modular design, Drawbridge has developed a people-friendly system to collect and stabilize a blood sample, thus opening new doors to important health information.

How does it work?

It starts with the NanoDrop blood lancet, a one-of-a-kind, user-friendly lancet that enables individuals to obtain capillary whole-blood samples and draw blood with a virtually painless, simple press of a button. NanoDrop is the first at-home, patented blood-sampling device for the upper arm to receive medical device clearance (510(k) O-T-C Clearance) by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Drawbridge’s growing suite of products includes the OneDraw Collection System, also cleared by the FDA as a medical device to draw blood samples to measure HbA1c for monitoring the long-term control of blood sugar in diabetic individuals.

OneDraw is a small, lightweight, single-use device that attaches to the upper arm with a hydrogel adhesive and vacuum. By pressing two buttons on the device, a virtually painless capillary blood sample is collected on a cartridge within the device.

The stable, dried, blood sample within the cartridge is then mailed to a third-party laboratory for analysis and results.

This cutting-edge technology makes drawing blood and at-home health monitoring both convenient and simple for health-care professionals and consumers alike. Small-sample capillary blood-testing advancements enable greater convenience and overall compliance in managing various disease conditions, such as diabetes, metabolic disorders, and infectious diseases.

NanoDrop and OneDraw can be used by health-care professionals who perform blood tests, at the convenience of their patient population: at the doctor's office, as well as locker rooms, spas, at home, schools, workplaces, research sites, and more.

Blood chemistry panels can be designed around individuals or populations. The OneDraw Blood Collection Device is individually packaged and contains everything needed for drawing blood – from site preparation to the mailing envelope.

“We are continuing to build the ‘healthcare of tomorrow’ through unparalleled research and development, science, and technology,” said Jerome Scelza, co-CEO of Drawbridge Health, in a press release. “NanoDrop’s versatility, accuracy, and ease of use make it an essential tool for health-care professionals and consumers alike in a decentralized clinical trial setting. To make at-home blood sampling easier for patients in remote areas or in the field – such as members of the armed forces and health-care providers running clinical trials – NanoDrop’s FDA clearance for over-the-counter use allows us to meet commercial demands across multiple end markets.”

How are Drawbridge Health's blood testing devices changing the market?

The NanoDrop and OneDraw Blood Collection Device eliminate the fear and discomfort of venipuncture blood draws that use a needle. With the easy-to-administer and convenient process, as well as the lack of a visible needle, patients are comfortable during their blood draw experience.

The NanoDrop and OneDraw Blood Collection Device eliminate the need for sending a patient to a lab, waiting in line, and having a phlebotomist and designated biohazard space on site.

Results are quick, and when imported via the Thorne Health Intelligence platform, both the practitioner and the patient receive a comprehensive understanding of their health metrics in relation to other values (including genetics, gut microbiome, and more) and personalized recommendations for desired health goals, including Thorne supplement recommendations.

“We look forward to incorporating these devices into our at-home testing kits in the future as we continue to see our customers wanting more and more access to personalized data to help them improve their health,” said Dr. Nathan Price, Chief Scientific Officer of Thorne, in a press release. “We firmly believe this is the next step in revolutionizing the user experience across our at-home testing portfolio, and that it will be a game changer when it comes to the diversity of individuals we can reach through at-home testing, as well as product development at Thorne.”

Thorne will also use the Drawbridge devices in the corporate wellness space to enable employees to individually measure, understand, track, and improve their health and wellness with preventative health screening and personalized interventions – with the goal of saving costly insurance claims from chronic, untreated conditions. 

The proof

Thorne Innovation Labs put the OneDraw Blood Collection Device to the test. On a dry-run corporate experience using employees new to the OneDraw Blood Collection Device, 40 adults volunteered for a blood draw at work.

Thirty-five percent reported they are typically anxious about having their blood drawn, explaining that the discomfort from the draw, seeing the number of tubes being filled with blood, and feeling faint as their primary reasons for anxiety.

On a scale of 0-10, zero being no pain and 10 being the worst pain imaginable, 21 adults reported the OneDraw Blood Collection Device as a 0 on the pain scale, with the average “pain” being 0.5. Ninety percent reported the pain as less than that of venipuncture, and 100 percent of the volunteers said they prefer the OneDraw Blood Collection Device over venipuncture or finger prick blood collection methods. The OneDraw Blood Collection Device has received a Net Promoter Score of 84.3. 

Thorne Innovation Labs strives to create the world's most innovative solutions for health and wellness. Their projects are radically disruptive in pushing the limits of human potential and redefine what it means to be healthy and well.