When essential monitoring becomes a barrier to clozapine treatment

Magnus Nordahl 
Region Marketing Manager, HemoCue

Current as of 2026

In connection with the 26th World Congress of Psychiatry, conversations around improving outcomes for patients with severe mental illnesses take center stage. Among these patients are those living with treatment-resistant schizophrenia, who often rely on clozapine therapy and the routine testing that enables it. 

For Magnus Nordahl, Region Marketing Manager at HemoCue and a former nurse, this highlights an often-overlooked aspect of patient care – ensuring that the follow-up required to keep patients safe does not become a barrier to treatment itself. 

This challenge is particularly relevant for patients receiving clozapine. Approximately one-third of patients with schizophrenia are considered treatment-resistant, meaning they do not respond adequately to standard antipsychotic therapies. For these individuals, clozapine is widely regarded as the gold standard treatment and may offer benefits such as improved symptom control, reduced hospitalization risk, and better long-term outcomes.  

To ensure patient safety, however, clozapine treatment requires regular blood monitoring. 

When monitoring becomes a barrier 

The challenge is that routine blood testing itself can sometimes create obstacles to treatment continuity. Regular blood testing may place both practical and emotional burdens on patients while creating workflow challenges for healthcare providers. 

Patients may need to travel for testing, coordinate appointments around daily activities, or wait for laboratory results before treatment decisions can be made. When testing is delayed or difficult to access, it can create uncertainty for both clinicians and patients and, in some cases, contribute to interruptions in therapy. 

For individuals whose symptom control depends on clozapine, maintaining continuity of care is critically important. 

Bringing testing closer to the patient 

This is where near-patient diagnostics can make a meaningful difference. 

By enabling testing to be performed closer to the patient and providing rapid, reliable results, near-patient diagnostic solutions can help simplify monitoring pathways and support more efficient clinical workflows.

“Faster access to results allows healthcare professionals to make timely decisions, while reducing dependence on centralized laboratory processes. For patients, this can mean a more convenient testing experience and fewer barriers to staying engaged with treatment,” says Nordahl.

Importantly, the goal is not simply to improve efficiency. It is to support continuity of care and help ensure that the monitoring requirements designed to protect patients do not become obstacles to receiving effective treatment. 

Supporting better outcomes through accessibility 

Reliable blood testing is essential for patients receiving clozapine, but ensuring that monitoring is accessible and convenient is equally important. By reducing barriers to testing and supporting timely clinical decision-making, healthcare providers can help patients stay engaged with treatment and maintain continuity of care. 

At HemoCue, we believe that accessible diagnostic solutions can play an important role in supporting these efforts. Innovations such as the HemoCue® WBC DIFF System enable white blood cell differential testing closer to the point of care, providing timely information that can support informed decisions and streamline monitoring pathways. 

Ultimately, improving outcomes is not only about access to effective treatments. It is also about creating care pathways that make those treatments easier to support, sustain, and integrate into everyday clinical practice. For people living with treatment-resistant schizophrenia, reducing barriers to care can help support treatment continuity, enhance the patient experience, and contribute to better long-term outcomes. 

The HemoCue^® WBC DIFF System is not intended for home use.