Direkttest AB offers self-testing for Covid19, among other diseases. The service includes distribution of test kits as well as communication between individuals, laboratories and medical authorities. Connecting a secure SMS service to the tests became crucial when the pandemic struck.

The story begins in March 2020 at the Sahlgrenska University Hospital laboratory, where a large increase in Covid19 infection was detected. It did not take long before it was decided that all hospital staff should be tested. Something that would be difficult to implement. Then a colleague remembered that they had used home test kits for chlamydia earlier. Shouldn’t it be possible to do the same with Covid19? Said and done. The collaboration began on a smaller scale, but when the Public Health Agency of Sweden decided that the public also should be tested, the volume of test kits became too large to send out to every individual.
– Since all our test kits have an individual ID and are impersonal, we were able to mass-produce them. Then people could collect a sample and test themselves. The individual registers their test with BankID and receives the test result on our website, says Fredrik Wernstedt, CEO of Direkttest and explains that they chose both email and SMS as notification for the result. That’s where Spirius came in.
– It worked well in terms of integration to get their messaging service into our systems. Most people who take the home test register with BankID, but not everyone. Then there is an option to register with a personal code. If it is forgotten, we send it via SMS instead, which is easy to do in Spirius’ interface, says Fredrik Wernstedt and adds that Spirius also met all the quality and safety requirements.
The pandemic continues, even though it is not classified as a public health hazard in Sweden at present.
– Our test kits are now used for healthcare staff, patients in nursing homes and the like. A few thousand tests a week pass through our systems. In total, we have run around 4.5 million tests via our platforms, says Fredrik Wernstedt who points out that the entire process requires a high level of operational reliability, not least from Spirius’ side.
– We are now looking at other areas such as home testing for HPV screening, diabetes and autoimmune diseases. We are also looking at addiction care where you may be able to use supervised self testing, so we hope for more and will of course see a continued collaboration with Spirius, Fredrik Wernstedt concludes.

For more information, contact Jonas Rexeke.