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What ends would diluting it achieve?

by djhn 11y ago

jkimmel 11y ago
They take smaller blood draws from finger tip pricks that aren't large enough in volume to run on a standard machine from Siemens et al. To get around this, they supposedly dilute the samples to a point where the concentrations of analytes are well below the machines minimum operating specifications.
- dekhn 11y ago
  Theranos responded that they use the exact manufacturer dilution protocol on their volumes. I don't know of any fact-based article saying they were operating the machines below their minimum specs.
- daughart 11y ago
  My understanding is that only the Edison machine uses finger prick amounts. However, it sounds like since these machines don't work they are using standard instruments. For these they take venous blood draws, just using a child-sized vacuum tube instead of an adult-sized vacuum tube. She talked about using the child-sized vacuum tubes in an interview. Not really a big differentiator in my opinion.
dekhn 11y ago
Basically, the story is this: 1) The founder of Theranos is afraid of blood 2) Theranos invents a new low volume blood draw technology and test mechanism (which contains many subtests) 3) The test they use to augment their limited test is a commercial product that works on larger volumes of blood 4) because their test doesn't actually work all that well (I actually don't know enough about this part, as their work is mostly secret) they have to pivot a bunch of of their tests to using a different company's test machine 5) Those other commercial products actually do work with smaller volumes of blood, diluted to larger volumes, in case you can't get a large volume from a patient There isn't anything wrong with Theranos diluting blood to make their tests work with another commercial product (this is a legitimate use). However, it does seem to suggest that the technology that hyped Theranos up to a multibillion value isn't as good as was claimed; instead, Theranos is mostly just another conventional provider of diagnostic tests. If they're just another conventional provider, it sort of kills the whole startup story and investment, because why would you invest in a disruptor if you can make money from the establishment? That said, it's common to see startups start with a really ambitious goal, fail, then pivot to become more conventional companies with decent but not spectacular revenue streams.
- kzhahou 11y ago
  > because their test doesn't actually work all that well (I actually don't know enough about this part, as their work is mostly secret) they have to pivot a bunch of of their tests to using a different company's test machine This is like if every time you fetched an Uber, a yellow cab showed up! Except for one market out of 200, where they run five black cars, in a small SF neighborhood.
  - dekhn 11y ago
    yes, that is how 95% of startups that don't go out of business end up. also, the yellow cab has a little black hoodie that makes it look like a limo.

What ends would diluting it achieve?

by djhn 11y ago

What ends would diluting it achieve?

They take smaller blood draws from finger tip pricks that aren't large enough in volume to run on a standard machine from Siemens et al. To get around this, they supposedly dilute the samples to a point where the concentrations of analytes are well below the machines minimum operating specifications.

dekhn 11y ago
Theranos responded that they use the exact manufacturer dilution protocol on their volumes. I don't know of any fact-based article saying they were operating the machines below their minimum specs.
daughart 11y ago
My understanding is that only the Edison machine uses finger prick amounts. However, it sounds like since these machines don't work they are using standard instruments. For these they take venous blood draws, just using a child-sized vacuum tube instead of an adult-sized vacuum tube. She talked about using the child-sized vacuum tubes in an interview. Not really a big differentiator in my opinion.

dekhn 11y ago

Basically, the story is this: 1) The founder of Theranos is afraid of blood 2) Theranos invents a new low volume blood draw technology and test mechanism (which contains many subtests) 3) The test they use to augment their limited test is a commercial product that works on larger volumes of blood 4) because their test doesn't actually work all that well (I actually don't know enough about this part, as their work is mostly secret) they have to pivot a bunch of of their tests to using a different company's test machine 5) Those other commercial products actually do work with smaller volumes of blood, diluted to larger volumes, in case you can't get a large volume from a patient There isn't anything wrong with Theranos diluting blood to make their tests work with another commercial product (this is a legitimate use). However, it does seem to suggest that the technology that hyped Theranos up to a multibillion value isn't as good as was claimed; instead, Theranos is mostly just another conventional provider of diagnostic tests. If they're just another conventional provider, it sort of kills the whole startup story and investment, because why would you invest in a disruptor if you can make money from the establishment? That said, it's common to see startups start with a really ambitious goal, fail, then pivot to become more conventional companies with decent but not spectacular revenue streams.

kzhahou 11y ago
> because their test doesn't actually work all that well (I actually don't know enough about this part, as their work is mostly secret) they have to pivot a bunch of of their tests to using a different company's test machine This is like if every time you fetched an Uber, a yellow cab showed up! Except for one market out of 200, where they run five black cars, in a small SF neighborhood.
- dekhn 11y ago
  yes, that is how 95% of startups that don't go out of business end up. also, the yellow cab has a little black hoodie that makes it look like a limo.