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Wouldn't quick and easy, highly automated and thus very cheap blood finger pricking test done at the nearest Walgreens be a great thing? I feel like there is a

by trhway 5y ago

Wouldn't quick and easy, highly automated and thus very cheap blood finger pricking test done at the nearest Walgreens be a great thing? I feel like there is a business idea somewhere here.

colechristensen 5y ago
My social media is full of ads for various kinds of medical testing. Usually “at home” versions, sometimes completely at home, sometimes mailing something back. Automation in labs is already a thing, progress marches ever on. Places like LabCorp that do testing for doctors offices without labs also already exist and they will do a la carte tests for anybody. You want to wrap it up and do better, you’ll need to be able to build highly automated machinery that may need FDA approval and do so cheaply enough to replace lab techs who can do hundreds of different kinds of tests. If you were successful you might be able to make a difference and a lot of money but not before you reached a huge scale and because it’s medicine there is a huge mountain to climb for doing lots of things safely and accurately, and a narrow gap to find where you can save money and time.
amluto 5y ago
I once got a Theranos test mostly for fun. Everyone is so focused on the fraud that they miss a more fundamental issue: finger pricks are a very painful way to draw blood. Your finger tip is extremely heavily innervated and very sensitive. Okay, maybe no big deal if you need one drop of blood, e.g. for a hemoglobin test. But Theranos wanted maybe ten drops of blood. Having one’s finger squeezed hard and long enough to extract that much blood takes quite a while and leaves one’s finger hurting for quite a while. I would take a venous blood draw from a good or even mediocre phlebotomist over a Theranos test any time. Heck, the time I got thirteen or so blood vials drawn by an actual good phlebotomist was basically painless and may have been faster than getting a single magic Theranos cartridge drawn. So count me out. People who want tests can go to Labcorp or Quest and get reasonably priced testing done by professional phlebotomists. Both companies have offices all over.
- andi999 5y ago
  What actually happened to draw blood from the earlobes?
- trhway 5y ago
  we already microchip pets. One can speculate a bit on having a microchip for humans (and humans can potentially take a bigger one ) for internal monitoring. Especially given that smart watch already does a lot, one can see how having a sensor embedded under the skin can enhance the functionality.
  - bitwize 5y ago
    Yes, but then you'd have microchip objectors, leading to governments and businesses implementing microchip mandates, and do you think that will go over well with the crowd that thinks the Mark of the Beast is an actual thing?

by trhway 5y ago

Wouldn't quick and easy, highly automated and thus very cheap blood finger pricking test done at the nearest Walgreens be a great thing? I feel like there is a business idea somewhere here.

colechristensen 5y ago

My social media is full of ads for various kinds of medical testing. Usually “at home” versions, sometimes completely at home, sometimes mailing something back. Automation in labs is already a thing, progress marches ever on. Places like LabCorp that do testing for doctors offices without labs also already exist and they will do a la carte tests for anybody. You want to wrap it up and do better, you’ll need to be able to build highly automated machinery that may need FDA approval and do so cheaply enough to replace lab techs who can do hundreds of different kinds of tests. If you were successful you might be able to make a difference and a lot of money but not before you reached a huge scale and because it’s medicine there is a huge mountain to climb for doing lots of things safely and accurately, and a narrow gap to find where you can save money and time.

amluto 5y ago

I once got a Theranos test mostly for fun. Everyone is so focused on the fraud that they miss a more fundamental issue: finger pricks are a very painful way to draw blood. Your finger tip is extremely heavily innervated and very sensitive. Okay, maybe no big deal if you need one drop of blood, e.g. for a hemoglobin test. But Theranos wanted maybe ten drops of blood. Having one’s finger squeezed hard and long enough to extract that much blood takes quite a while and leaves one’s finger hurting for quite a while. I would take a venous blood draw from a good or even mediocre phlebotomist over a Theranos test any time. Heck, the time I got thirteen or so blood vials drawn by an actual good phlebotomist was basically painless and may have been faster than getting a single magic Theranos cartridge drawn. So count me out. People who want tests can go to Labcorp or Quest and get reasonably priced testing done by professional phlebotomists. Both companies have offices all over.

andi999 5y ago
What actually happened to draw blood from the earlobes?
trhway 5y ago
we already microchip pets. One can speculate a bit on having a microchip for humans (and humans can potentially take a bigger one ) for internal monitoring. Especially given that smart watch already does a lot, one can see how having a sensor embedded under the skin can enhance the functionality.
- bitwize 5y ago
  Yes, but then you'd have microchip objectors, leading to governments and businesses implementing microchip mandates, and do you think that will go over well with the crowd that thinks the Mark of the Beast is an actual thing?