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Disruptive Bloodwork Startup May Offer Mostly Vaporware
dmr001 writes: As seen previously, Palo Alto startup Theranos planned to put the power of affordable lab work directly in the hands of patients with tiny fingerprick samples taken at Walgreen's, with four hour turnaround. The company claimed their tests were "made possible by advances in the field of microfluidics." But they were cagey about methodology and didn't use FDA approved analyzers.
Now, the Wall Street Journal reports (paywalled) (among others) that all but one of Theranos' analyzers currently in use is off the shelf, and that their tiny samples may not always have been accurate. Typically cagey founder Elizabeth Holmes vigorously disputes the criticism of her $9 billion startup, but entrenched players like Quest Diagnostics and LabCorp (which do quite well charging orders of magnitude above Theranos' prices) are likely doing a happy dance.
Physicians worrying about patients bringing in their own carcinoembryonic antigen levels and Epstein Barr Virus panels to confirm their Internet diagnoses of cancer and chronic fatigue may also be breathing sighs of relief, albeit with bittersweet regret at the potential loss of the price advantage and milliliter samples.
Now, the Wall Street Journal reports (paywalled) (among others) that all but one of Theranos' analyzers currently in use is off the shelf, and that their tiny samples may not always have been accurate. Typically cagey founder Elizabeth Holmes vigorously disputes the criticism of her $9 billion startup, but entrenched players like Quest Diagnostics and LabCorp (which do quite well charging orders of magnitude above Theranos' prices) are likely doing a happy dance.
Physicians worrying about patients bringing in their own carcinoembryonic antigen levels and Epstein Barr Virus panels to confirm their Internet diagnoses of cancer and chronic fatigue may also be breathing sighs of relief, albeit with bittersweet regret at the potential loss of the price advantage and milliliter samples.
CEO Elizabeth Holmes is fucking gorgeous!
Unfortunately, she sounds like a man.
Hottest. Vader. Impression. Ever.
Pretending this is my office full of bitter coworkers..
I can't wait for "disruptive" medicine as practiced by anyone with internet access and a hyperlink to WebMD.
Hey, that my HMO you're talking about, buddy.
Pretending this is my office full of bitter coworkers..
Hottest. Vader. Impression. Ever.
I dunno... having her shout out "I am your father!" at the wrong moment would probably leave me needing years of therapy afterward.
#DeleteChrome
if you look carefully at many of her pictures, especially close-up shots, she looks like someone who wears a latex mask. Maybe it's Steve Jobs underneath, that would explain the voice and how she dresses.
lucm, indeed.
I'd rather trust 10B of funding than an article on the WSJ
That's what Enron shareholders used to say.
lucm, indeed.
That is - you take a hundred people with CFS, a hundred people without CFS, and you can with certainty tell which group is which.
Of course you can! Those with Chicken-Fried Steak will have gravy dripping from their faces.
Tiller's Rule: Never use a word in written form that you've only heard and never read. You will end up looking foolish.