4 ms·
I think there's plenty of evidence to question their honesty as a company :-P You're right there are a few labs they do on commercial hardware that does work,
by entee 11y ago
I think there's plenty of evidence to question their honesty as a company :-P
You're right there are a few labs they do on commercial hardware that does work, and I think they're allowed to provide a test (for Herpes I think? could be wrong on specific test) that is inherently based on very small sample sizes. As I recall though, none of those tests use any new tech at all, and if it's an old blood test then it's not going to require less sample, therefore not that much less painful re. needles anyway.
Take that all away and you have a nice app and pricing experience. Pluses to be sure, and I'd love those things to happen more in medicine, but not very innovative or well positioned to take down $10B megacorps.
Lab tests aren't 100% reliable either, it's true. But the nature of that unreliability is understood and the value of the resulting tests are well established to be related to a clinical outcome. The main criticism of Theranos is that they never put themselves to that kind of test or scrutiny.
- plainOldText 11y agoFrom my experience, their prices are much lower than those offered by the competition. All things being equal, even if the only advantage Theranos has over its competition is lower pricing, I'd take it, because having access to affordable medicine has numerous positive implications for the entire society. What's the point of all the medical innovation if people cannot afford it? Ideally we should strive for both innovative and affordable healthcare, but unfortunately things in the healthcare sector are moving extremely slow.
- tobz 11y agoHaving an advantage implies they can do equivalent tests with their proprietary methods, which has not been rigorously proven. If the tests aren't actually equivalent, they haven't improved anything. Charging less for vaporware doesn't mean it's better, it's still fuckin' vaporware. :P