Where does the key to achieving wellness lie? A Fort Worth-based startup Bloodscore believes the answer is simple—it’s in your blood.

Bloodscore is a direct-to-consumer lab company that brings a detailed health analysis you can usually only find at a doctors office to your home. No appointments, no time off of work, and no complex results pages involved.

The intent is to bring accessible wellness checks to everyone at an affordable price; the at-home lab kits are $69 every three months. Then, the company takes the analysis a step further by not only highlighting problem areas, but by telling you how to fix them.

It works like this: Once receiving a test kit from Bloodscore in the mail, a customer pricks his or her finger, squeezes a few drops of blood onto a sample collector, and ships it back. Bloodscore uses a technology called “Dried Blood Spot,” which is a bio-sampling technique that has 50 years of research to back it up.

[Image: Courtesy Bloodscore]

“It sounds strange for a startup to be proud of old technology, but in healthcare, trust is everything,” Rachel Miller, the CEO and founder of Bloodscore, told Dallas Innovates. “Bloodscore is using trusted, time-tested, and data-backed technology in a new way. And we are so proud to be meeting unmet wellness needs.”

Once a blood sample is sent back to Bloodscore, its team of medical-grade lab partners analyzes the contents. When they’re finished, the results are posted on a private online portal.

The breakdowns are color coded, and everything is added up into an overall personalized “bloodscore” on a scale from 0-100. Then, the site connects clients to lifestyle improvement resources. Bloodscore does the work by finding what workouts, food choices, and supplements will work best for each individual.

“If you don’t have enough information, and you’re making all of these health choices for yourself, it’s kind of like driving with a blindfold on,” Miller says. “The technology is there to just do this in a better way. We’re passionate about a better experience so that people can get the information they need without such a big burden.”

[Image: Courtesy Bloodscore]

And if you’re thinking the Bloodscore process sounds slightly familiar (Theranos, anyone?), Miller assures she’s heard it all before. She gets questions on that a lot.

“I certainly get some strange looks when I mention that we are doing a number of wellness lab tests off of a small sample of blood,” Miller says. “People can’t help but think of the Theranos story. And, of course, being a blonde female doesn’t help… but that’s where the similarities end.”

Clearing up the confusion

The beginnings of Bloodscore, which launched in January of this year, trace back to complexity in the health and wellness industry. Miller, a physicians assistant, was tired of being confused about how to improve her health.

So, she set out to make things easier.

“You know, I have a medical license and I’m confused, standing in a health food aisle trying to decide what supplements might work for me,” she says. “So, we wanted to make sure that the data that we provide people is actionable, and is connected to information that actually helps them improve their health.”

When it came to nailing down a home base for Bloodscore, Miller chose Fort Worth for a reason. Not only is she deeply involved in the healthcare network in North Texas, but it’s close to home for her.

She’s a University of Texas graduate, a health science and business board member UNT and TCU, and she received her masters degree from UNT. In addition to being an avid lover of Texas education, she sees Fort Worth as an up and coming invention hub.

“What’s been really surprising and encouraging is that there’s so much innovation local to Fort Worth,” Miller says. “We’re actually involved with developing the medical innovation district, where lots of innovators and healthcare are coming together to develop the space and fuel each other’s goals and passions.”

Bloodscore is the only direct-to-consumer blood testing company in the area, and they plan on expanding. Since it’s a digital platform, they hope to eventually provide their services to all 50 states.

“We’re really selling a wellness improvement, a personalized health journey,” she says. “We really connect with people and and try to help them improve their health. We’re not successful just because we’re selling a bunch of blood tests, we’re successful because we’re helping people get healthier.”