Phase II: Blood Collection Instructions
| Upon receiving your Phase II package, please remember to keep it away from children and pets! If you’ve just received your package, carefully open the outermost packaging, making sure not to lose or discard any materials inside the shipping box. Your package will include two separate kits, one marked “Blood Collection Kit” and one marked “Water & Toenail Collection Kit,” along with two ice packs and three sheets of paper. Before freezing the ice packs, make sure they are laid flat to ensure they fit back into the “Blood Collection Kit”. Please avoid crumpling or folding them in your freezer. To prepare for your blood collection, you will need:
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Please follow the steps detailed below to complete the blood collection for Phase II. There is a video summarizing these steps at the bottom of this page. If you have any questions that are not answered in the steps below, please check out our FAQ by clicking here.
STEP 1: Receiving your Phase II materials
The white cardboard box labeled “Blood Collection Kit” should not be opened prior to the phlebotomy appointment that BSI will schedule with you. The contents within this box are intended for your licensed phlebotomist (person trained to draw blood) to use during your at-home blood draw, and it is important that these materials remain sterile and undamaged.
STEP 2: Scheduling your appointment
For your convenience, we’ve partnered with BSI, a phlebotomy contractor, to send a licensed phlebotomist to your home. After you receive your Phase II materials, BSI will contact you at the email or phone number you provided in the invitation survey to schedule a time for your at-home blood draw. If you don’t hear from them, please check your email spam settings. If you still don’t hear from them within two weeks, please let us know at slbt@hsph.harvard.edu or 617-432-0041.
For the best results, we recommend scheduling your appointment with BSI on a Monday. This allows our lab more time to process your samples. In case Mondays don’t fit your schedule, we kindly request that you try to schedule your appointment for earlier days in the week. However, BSI will work with you to find a suitable time between Monday and Thursday before the last FedEx pickup in your area.
If you need to reschedule your appointment, please contact BSI as soon as possible using the number or email they initially contacted you at.
STEP 3: Before your blood draw
Please make sure that your 2 icepacks are frozen by placing them in the freezer at least two days before your appointment. When placing them in the freezer, ensure that they are laid flat to make sure they will fit back into the “Blood Collection Kit”. The blood draw cannot proceed without them.
Before your blood draw, we recommend staying hydrated by drinking plenty of water. Blood is more than half water, so staying properly hydrated will make your blood draw quicker and easier.
Please also make sure you have the box marked “Blood Collection Kit” and the paper BSI Lab Directive ready for your phlebotomist. Your phlebotomist will be trained on the blood collection procedures done in this study, but in your package, there is a BSI Lab Directive that summarizes the preparation, collection, and packaging processes for your phlebotomist.
STEP 4: Your blood draw
At your scheduled time, your licensed phlebotomist will arrive at your home to begin the blood collection process. They will first check that both of your icepacks are frozen, then open your Blood Collection Kit to ensure that they have all the necessary materials for your blood draw. You will be asked to find a comfortable spot in your home to sit down while the phlebotomist proceeds to draw your blood, adhering to the standards and requirements of their licensure. Once the blood has been collected, the phlebotomist will repackage your samples as per the instructions on the BSI lab directive that they were trained on. Finally, they will take the packaged samples to a FedEx facility so that we can receive them the following morning.
STEP 5: After your blood draw
After your blood draw, we kindly request that you take a brief survey (less than 5 minutes) to provide us with additional information about your blood collection experience, including the time of your blood draw and any substances you may have consumed in the 24 hours prior. Every question in the survey is optional, but it is important for us to know about the time of your blood draw at the very least.
“You can access the post-blood draw survey by clicking here.
VIDEO SUMMARY OF THE BLOOD COLLECTION INSTRUCTIONS
If you have finished your blood draw with BSI, congratulations on completing the blood collection portion of Phase II of the St. Louis Baby Tooth – Later Life Health study! Your participation is greatly appreciated.
- If you have not yet started or completed the water and toenail collection portion, please click here to view the instructions for collecting those samples.
- If you have already completed the water and toenail collection portion, then you have completed all of Phase II!
To ensure that you receive our periodic newsletters updating you on the ongoing developments in Phase II, please keep your contact information up to date by filling out our update information form by clicking here.
Once again, thank you so much for your invaluable contribution to this study.