In startup-world, this is known as "faking it until you make it." Well done Theranos, keep at it!
Needless to say, that kind of strategy works for tech and apps, but not when people's lives are potentially at stake.
Theranos Has Struggled with Blood Tests
11–20 of 92 posts
Re: Theranos Has Struggled with Blood Tests
#12I am genuinely confused by the overall thrust of the article.
1st Theme says: Theranos doesn't use Edison (thier in house testing device) & instead use regular equipment from companies like Siemens. This is a marketing problem because the company is saying its using one device but is actually using another one.
2nd theme: lab tests from Theranos differ from generally accepted standards. How do they differ if in fact they are using the same tests as everybody else? Is it just the general variability of lab results and similar variability could be find in quest diagnostics as well?
3rd Theme: almost all people say Theranos is dramatically cheaper than competitors. How is that possible when they are using the same equipment as everybody else for most of the tests? Is it a process innovation in operations rather than from Edison/better equipment tech? Or are they just subsidizing these costs and being cheaper and possible have bad unit economics?
The are two plausible storylines that can seem to reconcile these three themes is:
Storyline 1 (Negative)- Theranos seem to be doing a process innovation rather than an underlying equipment innovation. That process innovation perhaps includes diluting blood samples 1) to meet thier marketing promise of taking less blood 2) somehow taking less blood and diluting the samples to meet the standard for traditional equipments AND still lead to cheaper operational costs that lead to lower prices. But - somehow these diluted blood samples show more than normal variability.
Storyline 2 (not so negative) Traditional lab companies are ridiculously inefficient from an operations perspective. Theranos is able to take the same equipment as everybody else but because of thier operational efficiency make the end service dramatically cheaper. The variability in tests results is kind of standard in the lab testing market.
Am I thinking about this the right way or missing any big parts?
Re: Theranos Has Struggled with Blood Tests
#13I am genuinely confused by the overall thrust of the article. 1st Theme says: Theranos doesn't use Edison (thier in house testing device) & instead use regular equipment from companies like Siemens. This is a marketing problem because the company is saying its using one device but is actually using another one. 2nd theme: lab tests from Theranos differ from generally accepted standards. How do they differ if in fact…
Well if they're not using their own technology for most of their tests it isn't just a marketing problem, it's an image problem that would lead investors to believe they don't have faith in their own product. Secondly, according to the article, their protocols even when using conventional machines differ from the norm in that they are forced to dilute samples to increase sample volume because they take less blood to begin with. This is generally accepted as being a less accurate practice.
Re: Theranos Has Struggled with Blood Tests
#14>>Theranos claims that the usual delay of testing in centralized laboratories is approximately 3 days and that they will generate and deliver their data much faster (e.g., within 4 h). The 3-day delay claim is not accurate. The bulk of laboratory testing in centralized laboratories is completed within an hour or two (calculated from time of sample collection to time of results posting for physician review). For examp…
The more I read about this company, Theranos, the more I get this feeling that one day I'll be reading an article in the WSJ or NYT titled "The Greatest Diagnostics Company That Never Was", or something along that line.
Re: Theranos Has Struggled with Blood Tests
#15In startup-world, this is known as "faking it until you make it." Well done Theranos, keep at it!
Depends on what you mean by "make it". Banks quite often convince people to by into funds they know won't perform. They "make it" in terms of fees, but I don't find it very admirable.
Re: Theranos Has Struggled with Blood Tests
#16I am genuinely confused by the overall thrust of the article. 1st Theme says: Theranos doesn't use Edison (thier in house testing device) & instead use regular equipment from companies like Siemens. This is a marketing problem because the company is saying its using one device but is actually using another one. 2nd theme: lab tests from Theranos differ from generally accepted standards. How do they differ if in fact…
You seem to be missing the part where former employees claim that the company skirted federal regulations by using other machines for the proficiency testing, while using the Edison machines for patient testing. The accuracy of those claims have some relevance to the kind of speculation you hope to make.
Re: Theranos Has Struggled with Blood Tests
#17In startup-world, this is known as "faking it until you make it." Well done Theranos, keep at it!
Or "doing things that don't scale." Holmes and her hucksterism would have been a great fit for YC!
Re: Theranos Has Struggled with Blood Tests
#18Obligatory click-through-Google URL: https://www.google.com/search?q=Theranos+Has+Struggled+With+... edit: I had known about Theranos mostly for being a highly valued startup by a young college dropout involving something in the medical field...I assumed it was more related to the scientific research side...but in the article it says it's been offering tests to the public since 2013 (and that that appears to be the m…
I have a friend in Phoenix who has used Theranos's testing system a few times, and he has been delighted by their service.
Re: Theranos Has Struggled with Blood Tests
#19Side note: Did anyone else find the writing for this article absolutely horrendous? “They were never able to produce them,” she says. Ms. King says the company did show detailed testing-accuracy data to the nurse. I would have flunked freshman-english if I wrote papers like this. There was zero effort to link thoughts together all-throughout the piece. I thought the point of a pay-wall was to promote and support good…
You're quoting out of context. The "she" in the quote is not Ms. King, which is very clear in the article.
Re: Theranos Has Struggled with Blood Tests
#20I am genuinely confused by the overall thrust of the article. 1st Theme says: Theranos doesn't use Edison (thier in house testing device) & instead use regular equipment from companies like Siemens. This is a marketing problem because the company is saying its using one device but is actually using another one. 2nd theme: lab tests from Theranos differ from generally accepted standards. How do they differ if in fact…
It's really pretty simple, and rather clear from the article, that Theranos has been cheating, VW-style. They use regular equipment to get through "proficiency testing", but use the Edison machine for regular patient specimens:
From the article:
> The two types of equipment gave different results when testing for vitamin D, two thyroid hormones and prostate cancer. The gap suggested to some employees that the Edison results were off, according to the internal emails and people familiar with the findings.
> Former employees say Mr. Balwani ordered lab personnel to stop using Edison machines on any of the proficiency-testing samples and report only the results from instruments bought from other companies.
> The former employees say they did what they were told but were concerned that the instructions violated federal rules, which state that a lab must handle “proficiency testing samples…in the same manner as it tests patient specimens” and by “using the laboratory’s routine methods.”