The company's name sounds vaguely like "tear anus". What did they expect?
At Theranos, Many Strategies and Snags
111–120 of 134 posts
Re: At Theranos, Many Strategies and Snags
#112Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think they wanted a bunch of Washington power players because their real money grab was pushing regulation changes so that patients could go and do their blood tests themselves, without a doctor's order. Surprisingly, they were actually successful in getting this passed in 1 state already- Arizona. If they were able to push that through it would be a HUGE gamechanging cash cow, because people could either self pay…
Will you please link to a source for the $3-4 million per patient per year figure or the $10 million per year figure for certain diseases?
It's just from what I see at work, we're consultants who do strategic case management for high acuity cases- patients who spend more than $3million per quarter (or whatever levels that specific client establishes with us) get kicked over to us.
I'm working with a guy right now who has a blood clotting disease and his meds alone are $800k yr before all the inpatient stays and procedures.
Generally once the patient starts spending and hits certain level of cost they get assigned a case manager through their insurance to 1. see if they're getting proper treatment 2. try to streamline them to the correct care first (rule out needless and repeat visits) 3. make sure all procedures and drugs are medically necessary. The people that go beyond these case managers sometimes go to a different organization for medical management.
Some states are getting even more strict, in Alaska right now if you have Medicaid and go to the doctor too much for what they view as needless visits you actually get cut off from ALL providers and then can only see certain approved providers for certain approved types of visits, can only get prescribed specific drugs and you have to "graduate" from that program after a year in order to get out of it by keeping ER visits to less than 1 every 6 months. I'll try and find you a link with more info about that program but they're trying to keep it on the dl because obviously all the patients who get put on that program are pretty outraged & they don't want the bad press about it, the perception of denying care etc.
Also everyone in the AK medicaid who is on opiates has to abide by a "pain contract" including random drug testing and med count checks and if they screw up too many times they will get banned from certain doctors/facilities, put on a stricter program (like the above) and can get kicked off Medicaid. Unfortunately this just leads to more homeless heroin addicts, so I can't really say that program has been a success.
Edit: link http://www.adn.com/article/20140703/state-aims-curb-overuse-...
Re: At Theranos, Many Strategies and Snags
#113Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree that good science often doesn't get recognized because it happens to rub some established scientists the wrong way. However, the issue with Theranos is the opposite: it is getting recognized, even though we don't know whether it's good science or not, because there isn't any visibility into what they do and how they do it. The scientists you mention all published their work for the world to see; they didn't h…
I was not remarking about Theranos, but rather to ThomPete's statement. Rigorous science is not sufficient (e.g. the Shechtmans/Warrens that we don't know about -- it is pure hubris to believe that all those were eventually vindicated), nor is it required (e.g. Vioxx, Thalidomide, ADA recommendations, baby peanut allergy recommendation, dietary cholesterol recommendation, dietary sodium recommendation). If Theranos i…
Not sure what you mean.
Their product is scientific. It's not just a health app or some nutriment recommendation which can be claimed successful without any scientific claims to back it.
Theranos has a very a scientific product with a binary output and so it's claims will stand up to that (i.e. being approved by passing a number of tests)
My lesson was for those who wanted to change the world via healthcare, not those who wanted to get rich.
Re: At Theranos, Many Strategies and Snags
#114No matter how this story ends (whether they eventually ends up with having a fully functioning product or not) this should be a cautionary tale to anyone wanting to actually change the world in healthcare. Science speaks for itself and does not care how much you raised at what valuation. It requires a rigorous approach to testings and facts and data or it will be merciless if you aren't living up to your own claims.…
Well that's all very moral, but what Theranos is doing is mostly engineering. So while "hype the fuck out of it, raise big money, and fake it 'till you make it" might feel all icky, it's not a unique plan. Will we be saying the same things about Palantir? Maybe, maybe not. There's not that much difference between Palantir and Theranos. What has Palantir got that others don't? Answer: The ability to raise money at inc…
Palantir is not making binary claims which can be proven right or wrong. Palantir is making tools which can be used and interpreted different ways. They are much more like vitamins.
Re: At Theranos, Many Strategies and Snags
#115Earlier quoted context omitted.
Glassdoor seems like it has the same business model as yelp- "Buy our advertising and we will make your good rankings rank higher and your worse reviews be filtered or lower." Maybe not outright extortion but certainly not what they claim of being a truly independent forum.
That allegation against yelp has never been proven. I'd be surprised if either yelp or glass door is outright deleting reviews for money.
True not not, Yelp certainly wants you to believe it helps to buy from them. It's how they make money. It doesn't need to be written in the contract to work.
Re: At Theranos, Many Strategies and Snags
#116No matter how this story ends (whether they eventually ends up with having a fully functioning product or not) this should be a cautionary tale to anyone wanting to actually change the world in healthcare. Science speaks for itself and does not care how much you raised at what valuation. It requires a rigorous approach to testings and facts and data or it will be merciless if you aren't living up to your own claims.…
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled" - Richard Feynman
how about reality distortion fields?
Re: At Theranos, Many Strategies and Snags
#117Earlier quoted context omitted.
Her father has a high-level job at USAID. https://www.usaid.gov/who-we-are/organization/christian-holm...
> Holmes worked in the field with USAID missions in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Egypt, Yemen, Ghana, Haiti, Liberia, Kenya, and Ethiopia > Holmes served in the U.S. Army, Second Lieutenant, Civil Affairs, receiving the U.S. Army Soldier’s Medal for Heroism. Want to guess who he really works for?
Hah! Maybe Theranos and Palantir have more in common than I thought.
Re: At Theranos, Many Strategies and Snags
#118Earlier quoted context omitted.
So I was on Glassdoor just yesterday and saw a little note "Your trust is our top concern, so companies can't alter or remove reviews." Is that just a flat out lie?
It's not a lie but it's not necessarily the whole truth. Companies can't alter reviews, but Glassdoor definitely can and does. We just don't know what criteria they use.
I know companies that have tried to get their reviews removed or edited, and offered considerable bribes for it. All have been turned down. My impression is that Glassdoor does uphold their stated policy. It's possible that their bribes were not high enough, or not presented to the right people, but at the least, it is not easy to get a review removed.
Re: At Theranos, Many Strategies and Snags
#119> Sunny Balwani is an entrepreneur and a computer scientist. Sunny joined Theranos after dropping out of the Computer Science program at Stanford University. He received his MBA at UC Berkeley and undergraduate degree from UT Austin. Honest question, can you claim to be a Computer Scientist if you drop out from a computer Science program ? To me it sounds like calling yourself a Doctor after dropping out following th…
> Honest question, can you claim to be a Computer Scientist if you drop out from a computer Science program ? Yes, absolutely. Plenty of luminaries in computer science don't have actual CS degrees.
I would think many computer scientists without a CS degree would still hold a degree in a field that would provide a solid basis for CS research (engineering or mathematics, possibly other sciences that require higher maths to be completed). There are probably a few that have little to no classical education but these exceptions are likely outliers.
Re: At Theranos, Many Strategies and Snags
#120For awhile, I kept seeing job posts at Theranos, which is how I know the name. I didn't know whether they were expanding or just had high employee turnover. The WSJ articles and the strange Glassdoor reviews (either totally love the company and CEO or extremely negative about the company and its ethics) leads me to believe that the WSJ is correct. The latest article with the video interview of the CEO, makes me think…
I'd be interested to be the results from a bot monitoring/archiving the Glassdoor page. I'm sure Glassdoor has some ability to audit or approve the review statements before they posted publicly which would provide some degree of damage control, but given the negative reviews it seems some would get through.