Therapeutic drug monitoring, specifically the determination of antiepileptic drug (AED) levels in a patient’s blood to adjust pharmacotherapy, is widely used in medical practice due to its potential to significantly increase treatment efficacy. Because this process requires specialized equipment, the analytical component of therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) is typically carried out by laboratories located in large medical centers, which limits patient access to this medical service. Self-administered (at-home) collection of biomaterial samples (capillary blood from fingertips) and their delivery to the laboratory by mail, combined with remote patient monitoring, would not only expand access to TDM but also introduce a new 'patient-centered' service model for epilepsy pharmacotherapy.

The goal of the project is to develop a technique for conducting therapeutic monitoring of antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) using a new matrix—capillary blood from fingertips (as opposed to the traditional invasive method using venous blood)—to determine the correlation between AED concentrations in venous blood (invasive) and capillary blood (self-collected) during clinical trials, and to validate the method. Ultimately, this has a practical aim: to create a new, convenient service for the medical market that is more user-friendly for both patients and healthcare providers.

Innovative devices, volumetric absorptive microsamplers are used for capillary blood collection, which allow for the collection of consistent blood volumes.

Upon development and summarized in the corresponding report, this method will be made available to the medical community and offered for commercialization.