The website design hides the message in frills and imagery, but the essence appears to be:
Faster/cheaper blood-testing, via a smaller/quicker samples (a fingertip-prick rather than needle-stick).
Theranos
11–20 of 127 posts
Re: Theranos
#12Does this mean that I'll be able to walk in and order my own blood tests in the US, without being extorted by a doctor? I see zero reason for me to be forced to schedule time with a doctor, pay her, just for her to "order" tests and have the results sent only to her, and then pay her again to read them back to me.
I get regular liver checks due to medication I take. Being able to walk into a lab and download the results online is a great convenience, but not something allowed in the US at the moment (to my knowledge).
Re: Theranos
#13Wow. That board of directors is a sight to behold. Looks more like a panel at the World Economic Forum. How on earth did the founder manage to get such high-profile backers?
[deleted]
Re: Theranos
#14Does this mean that I'll be able to walk in and order my own blood tests in the US, without being extorted by a doctor? I see zero reason for me to be forced to schedule time with a doctor, pay her, just for her to "order" tests and have the results sent only to her, and then pay her again to read them back to me. I get regular liver checks due to medication I take. Being able to walk into a lab and download the resu…
There are companies that take orders directly from patients and provide results back directly as well. Just google for "online lab tests" and look at the top few. They go through a doctor, but they basically rubber stamp the test order. They don't typically provide interpretation services nor are they covered by insurance (afaik). They do however, return results to you as soon as their back from the lab and typically work with labcorp or quest so you probably won't have to change your routine.
Re: Theranos
#15Very interesting people on the Board of Directors. Former heavyweights in the diplomatic, intelligence and military government sectors (George Shultz, Senator Samuel Nunn, Henry Kissinger etc). No big names from the technology or VC space are mentioned however. Something big is brewing.
They'd be dead within the year without some hefty political backing. The FDA does not play nice with novelty, ask any biomedical startup founder.
Re: Theranos
#16Does this mean that I'll be able to walk in and order my own blood tests in the US, without being extorted by a doctor? I see zero reason for me to be forced to schedule time with a doctor, pay her, just for her to "order" tests and have the results sent only to her, and then pay her again to read them back to me. I get regular liver checks due to medication I take. Being able to walk into a lab and download the resu…
Their website said you still need a doctor's note. It would be nice to avoid that in the future, I'd get cheap tests done all the time just out of curiosity.
Re: Theranos
#17Does this mean that I'll be able to walk in and order my own blood tests in the US, without being extorted by a doctor? I see zero reason for me to be forced to schedule time with a doctor, pay her, just for her to "order" tests and have the results sent only to her, and then pay her again to read them back to me. I get regular liver checks due to medication I take. Being able to walk into a lab and download the resu…
You can already do that, through lef.org, among others. You get a discount on the tests if you pay for a membership with the site, but it doesn't appear to be necessary.
(I'm neither a member, nor a customer, but I stumbled across their site a while back, doing some research about a health issue I ended up not having, anyway...)
Re: Theranos
#18Seems like an ease/cost breakthrough for health-monitoring... so I'm surprised they picked a name that sounds so much like 'Thanatos', the Greek god of death.
Re: Theranos
#19I've been waiting so long for this. As someone who avoids syringes like the plague, I always wondered, how come we have robots in Mars, yet we can't come up with something better than injecting a large piece of metal into our bodies? Now I just need to find a way to give them my money.
Re: Theranos
#20It's odd how little information is provided about the actual new technologies behind this.