theranos

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Almost changed the entire CP world without needing a pathologist at all. Failed due to the technology not working. A pathologist could have kept it from getting this ugly, but either way the pathologist is an afterthought. Got to 9 billion and this far...wallgreens, cleveland clinic (I guess they don't care about pathologists either)....and no pathologist.

Clinical pathology training....almost worthless. Should be 6-12 months tops.

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interesting development. Holmes is going to present her "Scientific data" at the American Association of Clinical Chemistry's annual meeting.

https://www.aacc.org/publications/c...nual-scientific-meeting-and-clinical-lab-expo

note AACC's disclaimer: Holmes' appearance is not an endorsement of Theranos, its products or services.

She was there in spirit last year. Any speaker that was even tangentially related to theranos was getting grilled on the company...
 
Probably a better chance of seeing DB Cooper at the AACC meeting.

Will she even be with the company in August?

If it wasnt for the Wall Street Journal, I wonder how long this would have continued. They definitely have been the catalyst.
 
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I just can't picture her showing up to talk about the technology and data. She may have an out if she is banned from the lab anyways. Most of her appearances are just fluff talks about "democratizing" lab tests, like it is some human right being denied to us that you can't order your own testing. I wish people would realize that more testing doesnt mean better health care. It just means more cost. The occupational health clinics in my area are learning that the hard way right now.

I read that over 500,000 health care jobs were created last year. Meanwhile insurers are pulling out of the exchanges. Health care is the next bubble to burst in the this country. It is unsustainable.
 
I don't have subscription. Is there a free version?
 
There are multiple articles today reporting what's in the wall street journal. Theranos is voiding two years of lab results on specimens run on the Edison. Why have these people not been shut down yet? This story gets worse and worse each week.

At the end of the wall street journal article it mentions that Theranos is still planning to build a lab in Pennsylvania and Siemens claims to have sold them equipment for it.
 
"Theranos spokeswoman Brooke Buchanan said: “Excellence in quality and patient safety is our top priority..."

I call BS.
 
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"Theranos spokeswoman Brooke Buchanan said: “Excellence in quality and patient safety is our top priority..."

I call BS.

Everytime someone from Theranos speaks they remind me of a scientology spokesperson.

I can't believe with all this going on, they are planning on building another lab in Penn.
 
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Not all of their tests are being run off of the blood from the fingertip. They are doing venous draws (using phlebs) on about 25 percent of their tests according to an article I read. If you read patient experiences, they were surprised they had to have a conventional blood draw.

I hope the people working there keep speaking to the media. It's more ammunition to use IF they ever show their face in your local Walgreens. They are not one of the disruptive technology companies that would keep me up at night if I were a younger pathologist.
Webb,
Just thought you'd like to know that I just bought a Blu-Ray from Amazon with HD versions of Soylent Green, the Omega Man, and Logan's Run for $11. I was always looking to stream these though Netflix/Amazon but they are never available.


Amazon product
 
That's a good deal! I'd watch all three of those in one sitting if I didn't throw emboli so much.

I've been wanting to watch Vanishing Point lately. Probably need to buy that off amazon soon.

Here's a little tip that you may already know, there are websites and companies that pay physicians amazon cash to fill out surveys. Last one I filled out paid 40 bucks. I buy music and DVDs with the money.
 
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It is going to be very hard for them to regain trust. All the the media attention has now shifted. Originally the media was piling on to tell the good story about the telegenic young billionaire founder and her magical machines that could replace every lab test done in this country, without asking any critical questions about whether it was legitimate and/or necessary. And they did all that without asking critical questions. ANd now the media is piling on to dump on the company and ask all the critical questions at once (does it work, where's the evidence, is their business model realistic, do people really need that many lab tests). But they are also overinflating the importance of certain things like individual lab inspection violations and minor problems with accuracy. Because theranos has major problems with these two issues, it isn't that relevant for this case, but you can see the template - if another lab gets in trouble for some inspection violations now it will be "Violations similar to what Theranos did" and all that. Again, refusing to ask critical questions and just assuming they know everything.

So the media may now be missing the point by piling on. I would hope media reporters have learned from this, that they need to ask important questions but involve nuance a little and not blow everything up into a huge life altering problem.

But this company is going to have to either change their name or sell their business or whatever, unless they have enough $ to retrench and rebuild eveyrthing. If their technology actually works, there will be a buyer. Their prices and distribution of labs is important too, but without legitimacy it's kind of a waste. If they truly become transparent and demonstrate their technology now works, they will likely do ok because $ always trumps everything else in the end, other things being relatively equal.
 
I am still trying to understand how Theranos "corrected" some of the results they threw out on specimens run on the Edison during those two years. That is a head scratcher.

At this point, it is probably safe to assume Edison is heading toward the lab boneyard. The article even says they contacted Siemens about buying equipment for the new lab in Penn. They clearly are hoping to re-boot as labcorp/quest type, which is not what the investors probably thought they were investing in. Yea, we are going to be like the commercial labs, except we are going to run tests for way below Medicare rates. That makes you want to give them millions of dollars....Hope that Penn lab doesn't even get off the ground.

We have all seen examples of Theranos over the years with some specialty labs pushing some LDT(s), that may or may not be complete garbage. The validation studies many times seem paltry to me. It is very frustrating that physicians are so naive and buy everything a sales rep says. How can we expect the public and media to be critical when our own colleagues can't?
 
The Theranos saga just gets better and better. Sounds like Theranos' facility is similar to visiting North Korea. Boy Walgreens was stupid.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/craving-growth-walgreens-dismissed-its-doubts-about-theranos-1464207285

In October 2012, Walgreens sent two executives and Paul Rust, a retired executive from clinical-lab company Quest Diagnostics Corp.DGX-0.13%, on a trip that included a review of quality-control data at Theranos.
“It was a very strange situation,” he recalls of the one-day visit. “The results were actually really good, but I was never allowed to go into the lab. I have no idea that the results I saw were run on the Edison devices or not.”



"Walgreens and Theranos had just signed an initial letter of agreement, and the drugstore chain’s executives wanted a firsthand review of Theranos’s business operations and lab capabilities.
The visitors were ushered into a conference room and chaperoned throughout the visit. When a member of the Walgreens team left the meetings to use the restroom, the person was escorted by Theranos personnel."
 
Biggest Ponzi Schemes in History:

1.) Madoff Investments: $65 Billion
2.) Theranos/Holmes: $9 Billion
3.) Petters: $3.65 Billion
4.) Rothstein: $1.4 Billion

Ms. Holmes made history. Total disruptive technology queen.
 
They have job postings for the lab they are planning on building in Harrisburg, PA believe it or not. Will they be allowed to reinvent themselves going forward as a conventional laboratory? I never understood how they would stay in business, grow with those prices.

I have been very disappointed with CAP and others for being silent while this saga unfolded. It was obviously a con from day 1. It took the Wall Street Journal to expose them and stop patients from being harmed. Our organizations are a joke.
 
Biggest Ponzi Schemes in History:

1.) Madoff Investments: $65 Billion
2.) Theranos/Holmes: $9 Billion
3.) Petters: $3.65 Billion
4.) Rothstein: $1.4 Billion

Ms. Holmes made history. Total disruptive technology queen.

Except I'm not sure she saved any money out of it.
 
Except I'm not sure she saved any money out of it.

she did, where it is though is an interesting question. She cashed 4.5billion of the total value out of the company I think and spent a reasonable amount of that on the hardware and development. Arguably some of it was taken aboard a private plane when she relocated to the South Pacific for part of last year when this story started to break.
 
They could still open draw centers. Wonder how much of the 700 million dollars they have left.

The Wall Street Journal deserves all the credit for taking them down and protecting patients. Our organizations have been silent the whole time. Still waiting for CAP to say anything.....
 
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Lol it's starring Jennifer Lawrence. They aren't gonna paint her as the big bad. Bet this will be a nice and shiny "The medical system couldn't handle this disruptive innovator" kind of pitch.

Exactly, with the large labs/hospitals or even Theranos board members cast as evil. I bet this movie is almost identical to Tucker: The man and his dreams.
 
Oh the horror of getting blood drawn...I guess if you believe like she and her followers do, that you need to know what is going on in your body every second, then yea it sucks getting your blood drawn. The "democratizing" of health care is a bunch of crap and just leads to unnecessary testing/costs. We sure as hell will find something to treat you for in this country. We are a bunch of hypochondriacs. Our system is full of waste already which I guess is good for us since we wouldn't have jobs otherwise. We don't need any more waste! Less is more!

Maybe she was attacked by a porcupine as a child. I would put that in my movie.
 
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I'd have a recurring theme of her having The Emperor's New Clothes read to her as a bedtime story, but you know, with an auteur's sensibilities--no dialogue, Debussy playing softly in the background, maybe even in black and white (I haven't decided).

Then I'd add aliens for WEBB and a debauch full of gratuitous nudity for LADoc00.
 
The ending needs a big reveal similar to Soylent Green.

"Soylent Green is people". Not sure how to finish the line "Theranos is......."
 
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Anyone still think she will show up to the AACC meeting next month?

Still waiting for CAP to say something.....:sleep:

Wall Street Journal, we salute you for taking down this fraud :thumbup:
 
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AACC conference mentioned (in yet another Theranos Wall Street Journal article) yesterday. The article is an excellent read. Anyone still think she will show?

http://www.wsj.com/articles/under-fire-theranos-ceo-stifled-bad-news-1468195377

"Shortly after the new advisory board’s appointment, Ms. Holmes accepted an invitation to present Theranos’s fingerprick-testing technology and clinical data at the American Association for Clinical Chemistry’s annual meeting on Aug. 1 in Philadelphia.

But there was a problem: The company didn’t have sufficient data to present. The Food and Drug Administration had deemed studies Theranos had submitted—other than one for a blood test to detect herpes—inadequate, two people with knowledge of the matter said. Theranos needed to collect new clinical data to present at AACC, one of these people said.

Theranos started new studies in May and still is in the process of collecting and analyzing data from them, this person said."
 
AACC conference mentioned (in yet another Theranos Wall Street Journal article) yesterday. The article is an excellent read. Anyone still think she will show?

http://www.wsj.com/articles/under-fire-theranos-ceo-stifled-bad-news-1468195377

"Shortly after the new advisory board’s appointment, Ms. Holmes accepted an invitation to present Theranos’s fingerprick-testing technology and clinical data at the American Association for Clinical Chemistry’s annual meeting on Aug. 1 in Philadelphia.

But there was a problem: The company didn’t have sufficient data to present. The Food and Drug Administration had deemed studies Theranos had submitted—other than one for a blood test to detect herpes—inadequate, two people with knowledge of the matter said. Theranos needed to collect new clinical data to present at AACC, one of these people said.

Theranos started new studies in May and still is in the process of collecting and analyzing data from them, this person said."


Not surprised. I know people that were going to do studies with Theranos, and then all of a sudden Theranos went radio silence. Think that was about a year ago...
 
Everytime someone from Theranos speaks they remind me of a scientology spokesperson.

I can't believe with all this going on, they are planning on building another lab in Penn.
True...but reality never stopped Scientology from being successful. Aren't they worth like 1.2 billion or something? Plus all those Tom Cruise movies ;) there is no accounting for the success of crazy
 
Today is the day Holmes is going to speak at the AACC meeting. Will it go over better than Ted Cruz at the Republican convention?
 
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I can't believe she used that forum to show off a new machine. What about the infamous Edison? Of course she didn't produce independent verification of the data like usual. Since she is banned from operating labs for 2 years, I guess that will be there new business until the money runs out.
 
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