There is a proliferation of companies offering at-home testing. In some cases these are mail-in tests where patients collect their own samples (blood, mouth swab, urine, or stool) and mail them into a laboratory for processing. In other cases, though, sample collection and testing is performed at the patients’ home with results available in minutes. These instant tests represent advancements in lateral flow technology (paper strips, much like easy-to-read pregnancy tests), as well as entirely new forms of testing, including portable analyzers intended for at-home use. At-home testing offers many advantages for the consumer, including convenience, privacy (especially for sensitive tests like for sexually transmitted diseases [STDs]), increased access to care, especially for those without insurance, and reassurance from ongoing monitoring. But, some health care professionals are concerned that at-home testing, especially self-initiated, can result in false results, wasted resources for unneeded or unproven tests, or even worse, adjustments to treatment doses without clinician oversight. For many analysts, at-home testing is the inevitable evolution of health care reflecting ongoing trends of consumerization of medicine, patient empowerment, and increased price awareness resulting from higher out-of-pocket medical expenditures. (Patient-initiated testing is entirely out-of-pocket, although in some cases health savings accounts can be […]