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Theranos Is Subject of Criminal Probe by U.S

wsj.com

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Re: Theranos Is Subject of Criminal Probe by U.S

#91

Post by jfoutz »

BurningFrog wrote: post #72
toomuchtodo wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Someone out there needs to attack healthcare. All the attacking that needs to be done is political/social, not technical. Want to attack healthcare? Strip middlemen out so that the money flows to providers and researchers (Single payer + pouring additional money into the NIH/NSF, with the results being public domain). All of these YC startups I see "hacking" healthcare (Dr Chrono, HealthSherpa, etc) are just bandai…

Here is a good factual overview of why Single Payer won't make health care cheap in the US: http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-04-30/single-paye...

two things struck me as a little odd.

One, the private costs are off the chart with regard to our peers, but the government spending is just "more than average". but more than average is presented as being just as bad as the outlier we are in the first case.

Two, medicare is responsible for the most expensive health years of a person's life. The time when our bodies just start to fall apart and require a lot of specialized care. Medicare's cost controls seem really good when their youngest clients are 65. Comparing their costs to a private company, who insures working adults, seems like a shallow analysis.

Re: Theranos Is Subject of Criminal Probe by U.S

#92

Post by hurbledr »

BurningFrog wrote: post #72
toomuchtodo wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Someone out there needs to attack healthcare. All the attacking that needs to be done is political/social, not technical. Want to attack healthcare? Strip middlemen out so that the money flows to providers and researchers (Single payer + pouring additional money into the NIH/NSF, with the results being public domain). All of these YC startups I see "hacking" healthcare (Dr Chrono, HealthSherpa, etc) are just bandai…

Here is a good factual overview of why Single Payer won't make health care cheap in the US: http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-04-30/single-paye...

While converting from our current patchwork system of government healthcare (a system that's been fragmented in large part due to insurance industry lobbying) will have a high initial cost, it will ultimately be more efficient. As it stands, the insurance companies add enormous overhead (office buildings, sales, advertising, etc), without actually providing any care.

Re: Theranos Is Subject of Criminal Probe by U.S

#93

Post by jjoonathan »

Mz wrote: post #68
supernova87a wrote: post #63

I think the reason we (maybe secretly) take so much satisfaction / schadenfreude at this story is that someone who was so hyped and the darling of Silicon Valley got so much funding and attention. While others who toil away on good ideas, without nearly so many connections and silver spoons, struggle to even get 1 minute of air time with the kind of funders and backers that she got. That, plus seeing the cluelessness…

Or maybe some folks feel relieved to have their mental models for actual reality validated. Folks who thought it smelled like vaporware at best, or BS at worst, may not be engaging in schadenfreude so much as "Ha! I knew it! I'm not crazy!" It is possible to have not ugly reasons for finding satisfaction in seeing how this is turning out.

Thanks, I miscategorized my own feelings of validation as schadenfreude and was feeling bad about it. Now I don't have to.

Re: Theranos Is Subject of Criminal Probe by U.S

#94

Post by cft »

Fede_V wrote: post #9

Man, the shoe fell really, really quickly. Also - huge congratulations to the reporting team of the WSJ, that did an incredible job of unconvering this story back when Theranos was still considered a golden goose. John Carreyrou in particular did some exceptional reporting.

Uncovering? They pissed off (justly) somebody very important, probably in the military, and they used WSJ to orchestrate this.

Re: Theranos Is Subject of Criminal Probe by U.S

#95

Post by FireBeyond »

cft wrote: post #94
Fede_V wrote: post #9

Man, the shoe fell really, really quickly. Also - huge congratulations to the reporting team of the WSJ, that did an incredible job of unconvering this story back when Theranos was still considered a golden goose. John Carreyrou in particular did some exceptional reporting.

Uncovering? They pissed off (justly) somebody very important, probably in the military, and they used WSJ to orchestrate this.

No, the other way around. They were all set to get it in at a high level into the military, when some pesky medical lower ranking officer said, hey, doesn't this need FDA approval? Theranos tried to squelch that, but to no avail.

Re: Theranos Is Subject of Criminal Probe by U.S

#96

Post by daurnimator »

supernova87a wrote: post #63

I think the reason we (maybe secretly) take so much satisfaction / schadenfreude at this story is that someone who was so hyped and the darling of Silicon Valley got so much funding and attention. While others who toil away on good ideas, without nearly so many connections and silver spoons, struggle to even get 1 minute of air time with the kind of funders and backers that she got. That, plus seeing the cluelessness…

FWIW, I had never heard of Theranos until they came up in the news with all these issues (and I read HN every day).

Re: Theranos Is Subject of Criminal Probe by U.S

#97

Post by TuringNYC »

ThomPete wrote: post #65
wrong_variable wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

healthcare is a very hard problem. While we in the tech community may find it morbidly entertaining to watch Theranos burn to the ground. Someone out there needs to attack healthcare. The not dying motivation is fairly important.

It is and so it's kind of absurd that someone would create so much hype around their company before they even had something working. I would in fact call it irresponsible.

Given that patients relied on the faulty tests to drive healthcare decisions, one might even call it criminally negligent.

Re: Theranos Is Subject of Criminal Probe by U.S

#98

Post by hurbledr »

devonkim wrote: post #52
wrong_variable wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

healthcare is a very hard problem. While we in the tech community may find it morbidly entertaining to watch Theranos burn to the ground. Someone out there needs to attack healthcare. The not dying motivation is fairly important.

Healthcare like almost every major enterprise vertical is a wicked problem[1] and these problems are pretty much rife with far more than just technical problems. Most of the VC founded ventures are honestly quite terrible at attacking the Fortune 100 that dominates these verticals including reasons like collusion as well as regulatory capture. A $10M+ series A seems like big money to a lot of the people in tech, in t…

Well said.

Re: Theranos Is Subject of Criminal Probe by U.S

#99

Post by KKKKkkkk1 »

jackcn wrote: post #11

Like I've mentioned before, Theranos needs to shut down. The technology doesn't work (and likely it never will since blood constituents are not evenly distributed at small volumes) and its investors and executives are complicit in fraud. While half-completed/non-working solutions are fine in software world and with consumer electronics, a misreading or missed reading of blood parts can easily cost the health or life…

Half-completed and non-working solutions do not work in software. If the foundational technology of Facebook was floppy disks and gopher://, Facebook would not have seen the light of day. The problem with Theranos is not that its technology was a failure, it's that it was lying about said technology.

Re: Theranos Is Subject of Criminal Probe by U.S

#100

Post by wstrange »

jackcn wrote: post #11

Like I've mentioned before, Theranos needs to shut down. The technology doesn't work (and likely it never will since blood constituents are not evenly distributed at small volumes) and its investors and executives are complicit in fraud. While half-completed/non-working solutions are fine in software world and with consumer electronics, a misreading or missed reading of blood parts can easily cost the health or life…

> blood constituents are not evenly distributed at small volumes

Clearly they should have diluted the samples further.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMGIbOGu8q0

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