Your health is a line. One blood test shows you a dot.
Ziro posts you a kit every month. A device presses against your upper arm and takes the sample in about five minutes, with no vein and no clinic. You post it back to an accredited laboratory, and each month's results land next to the ones before them.
Launching in Ireland and the UK
- About five minutes, at home
- Upper arm, no vein involved
- Analysed by an accredited partner laboratory
- One panel a month
The problem with one blood test
A single result arrives without any context.
You get a number and a reference range. The range is built from a population, so it tells you where you sit relative to other people. It cannot tell you where you sit relative to yourself six months ago.
Two people can have the identical reading on the identical day. One has been steady there for years. The other has moved a long way to get there and is still moving. The number on the page looks the same for both of them.
What separates those two people is having something to compare against. That is the part a single test cannot give you, and the part a series can.
How it works
Three steps, once a month.
The device
A device that presses against your arm, and nothing else.
The device sticks to the outer part of your upper arm, roughly where a vaccine goes. You press the button once.
A tiny lancet opens the skin, and a gentle vacuum draws blood into the tube underneath. There is no syringe and no vein involved, which is why it does not feel like a blood draw.
It takes about five minutes. You unclip the tube, seal it, and the collection is done.
- Where it goes
- Outer upper arm
- How long it takes
- About five minutes
- What it collects
- 300–600 µL of liquid whole blood
- Made by
- Tasso, Inc.
Volume
The same markers, from a great deal less blood.
A standard panel at a clinic fills several tubes from a vein. The device in your kit fills one small tube from the surface of your arm, and the laboratory runs the same assays on it.
Clinic draw
~10 mL
Several tubes, drawn from a vein
Ziro kit
~0.5 mL
One tube, drawn from the upper arm
Clinic volume is approximate and depends on the panel and the tubes a laboratory uses. The device collects 300–600 µL depending on tube type.
How we are set up
We do not own a laboratory. That is deliberate.
Owning a laboratory is a genuine advantage for a testing company. It gives you control of the process and it gives you margin. It also means every sample goes to the same place, whatever the question.
We took the other route. Ziro works with accredited partner laboratories, and the laboratory carries responsibility for the accuracy of your results under its ISO 15189 accreditation. We are responsible for the kit reaching you, the sample arriving in a usable state, and your results being presented honestly once they come back.
It means we can tell you who ran your test. It also means that if a better laboratory exists for a particular marker, we are free to use it.
What we measure
Seven groups of markers, run as one panel.
The panel is being finalised with our laboratory partner. These are the areas it covers.
Metabolic
6Markers involved in how your body takes up and stores energy.
Cardiovascular
9Markers of the fats and particles carried in your blood.
Hormones
11Chemical messengers that vary across the day, the month and the decades.
Inflammation
4General markers of inflammatory activity in the body.
Vitamins & minerals
11Micronutrients and the proteins that store and carry them.
Thyroid
5The hormones that set the pace of your metabolism.
Organ function
13Markers routinely used to describe how the liver and kidneys are working.
The trend, shown
The same reading, read two ways.
Below is one marker measured over six months. Switch between a single reading and the full series, and watch how much you can say about it change.
Apolipoprotein B (ApoB)
ApoB counts the cholesterol-carrying particles in your blood. It is a standard laboratory measurement.
Range commonly reported as typical
August, on its own
1.12 g/L
This reading sits inside the range most laboratories report as typical, so there is nothing here that stands out. You cannot tell from it whether the number has been sitting in the same place for years or has been moving the whole time. One reading has no direction.
Illustrative data, not a real member's results. Reference ranges vary between laboratories.
Who it's for
People who want to watch something move.
Keeping an eye on things
There is a family history that sits at the back of your mind, or you have been told your bloods are normal and would like to know what normal has been doing.
Training through the year
You train seriously and want to see how markers like ferritin behave across a heavy block, a taper and a rest week, rather than guessing from how you feel.
On hormone therapy
You are on HRT or another therapy that gets adjusted over time. A monthly series gives you and your doctor something concrete to look at together.
Playing a longer game
You are less interested in this month's number than in where the line has been heading for the last three years.
How we work
The parts you should be able to check.
An accredited partner laboratory
We are not a laboratory ourselves. Your sample is analysed by a partner laboratory accredited to ISO 15189, the international standard for medical laboratories. We will name the laboratory here before we open.
A CE marked device
The collection device is made by Tasso and carries CE Mark certification for the European market. It is the same device used in decentralised clinical trials and remote collection programmes.
Processed in Europe, held under GDPR
Samples are analysed in Europe and results are stored on European infrastructure. Your results are special category health data, we do not sell or share them for advertising, and you can have them deleted.
Questions
Does it hurt?
The device presses against your upper arm and draws the sample without a needle. Most people describe a firm pressure and not much else. It takes a few minutes and you can do it sitting at a table.
Do I have to fast before a test?
Some markers are affected by a recent meal and some are not. We will tell you which applies to your panel and give you a straightforward instruction before each kit arrives.
The specific guidance is being finalised with our laboratory partner.
Why monthly, rather than once or twice a year?
Because most markers move, and a single reading gives you no way to tell an ordinary fluctuation from a genuine change. Monthly readings let the noise average out and give a real change somewhere to appear. That is the whole reason Ziro exists.
Who runs the actual tests?
A partner laboratory accredited to ISO 15189, the international standard for medical laboratories. We are not a laboratory and we do not analyse samples ourselves.
We will name the laboratory on the Labs page before we open.
Will Ziro tell me if something is wrong?
No. Ziro gives you your results and explains what each marker indicates in general terms. It does not diagnose anything, and it does not tell you what your particular result means for you.
If something in your results warrants a conversation, that conversation is with a doctor. Your results are downloadable so you can bring them to an appointment.
Does this replace seeing my GP?
No, and it is not designed to. Your GP has your history, can examine you and can order tests that we do not offer. Ziro gives you a record of how a set of markers has moved, which is something a GP appointment does not usually produce.
What happens to my sample and my data?
Your sample is analysed in Europe and then disposed of by the laboratory under its own accredited procedures. Your results are stored on European infrastructure and held under GDPR as special category health data.
We do not sell your data, we do not share it for advertising, and you can ask us to delete it at any time.
Can I skip a month or cancel?
Yes to both. You can skip a month before your kit is dispatched, pause the membership, or cancel outright. There is no minimum term and no exit fee.
One panel a month, starting in Ireland and the UK.
We are not open yet. Join the waitlist and we will write to you once, when there is something to tell you.