Getting a blood draw is a standard first step toward almost any medical diagnosis – whether your doctor is concerned that you are anemic, have kidney disease or diabetes, or as part of a standard screening during pregnancy. Most of these tests check for a shortage or excess of a particular factor (often a protein) in the blood, which acts as a clue for physicians about a potential health risk.
But what if instead of needing a different blood draw for each suspected health issue, doctors could order up a single blood test that would combine a hundred or more different measures to reveal a holistic portrait of your overall health – as well as your risk for a whole host of diseases? Such a test could be administered widely to inform early individualized interventions designed to keep everyone healthy longer.
