A new program at an Inova blood center in Centreville, Virginia, hopes to give donations a much-needed boost by offering free blood work panels to donors.
Goodlabs, a startup that launched in January 2025, is partnering with Inova Health System to offer health insights to people who donate blood at the Centreville center.
The concept, according to Goodlabs co-founder and CEO Grant Brewster, is to create a “win-win” 鈥� giving donors a health incentive while helping keep the blood supply at levels needed for life-saving care.
The idea came from Brewster’s own experience with a rare condition called genetic hemochromatosis 鈥� a condition he said means his body cannot properly process iron.
鈥淢y entire life, I was living with this condition and not knowing 鈥� and iron was silently accumulating in a bunch of my organs without me knowing it,鈥� Brewster said. 鈥淎nd the prescription in order to get this iron out of my system was I actually had to go donate blood.鈥�
That would happen every Friday afternoon. After he made his donation, he still had to see multiple specialists who would then poke him with more needles in order to track his iron levels.
鈥淚 was like, 鈥楬ey, there’s already a needle in my arm when I donate blood, why can’t you guys just ask them to go run this test?鈥� And they’re like, 鈥極h, that’s not necessarily something that the blood centers do,鈥欌�� he said. 鈥淪o then I went over to the blood centers, and I was like, 鈥楬ey, why can’t you guys just run some tests? So I don’t have to get poked and prodded by my other doctors.鈥� And they’re like, 鈥極h, that’s not necessarily something that we do.鈥欌��
He didn鈥檛 exactly find those answers satisfying, so he quit his job as a software engineer to figure out how the answer could be changed to yes. That鈥檚 how Goodlabs was created.
For those who show up to Inova鈥檚 donor center in Centreville, Brewster said the process starts with someone going to and creating an account.
They can choose from different types of blood panels to have testing, with options ranging from a general health and wellness panel covering things like blood sugar and cholesterol, as well as more specific panels focused on hormones or nutrients.
On donation day, the blood collection happens through the same needle used for the donation itself 鈥� no extra draw needed. That testing can cost people hundreds of dollars. But for donors at the Centreville center, it鈥檒l be free.
鈥淲hat we’re trying to do is remove friction and add an incentive for people to donate,鈥� Brewster said. 鈥淭he main thing here is that we’re trying to really enable people to participate who historically can’t afford these different types of health insights. Potentially, these are folks who are uninsured or underinsured.鈥�
Brewster said the tests run at the same labs physicians use for annual physicals. A few days later, results show up in the Goodlabs platform. Brewster said the platform is designed to help people interpret what their results mean, not just whether values fall in a normal range.
Free care navigation calls are available directly through the platform, and if something more concerning comes up, Inova’s primary care and urgent care networks are available.
Brewster said the company is also building a telemedicine integration so donors can “one-click talk to a doctor.”
The partnership was announced at a time when blood donations have been on the decline, even as demand has nationwide.
Brewster said the need for new donors is constant, with shortages in the summer and urgent demand in the winter. He said about 25% of donated blood goes directly to cancer patients, and that 1 in 89 childbirths require a massive transfusion.
Goodlabs has partnered with other clinics around the country for similar programs. Brewster pointed to one donor in her 20s who learned through a blood donation that she had high LP, an inherited marker linked to a higher risk of heart disease. He said that prompted her to change her lifestyle, exercise and diet to reduce her risk of an early heart attack.
鈥淲e’re really sort of like focused on people who historically, don’t have access to these different types of insights,鈥� Brewster said.
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