Write An Essay On Theranos

Troy Herrera Rice
Section 2
Theranos Position Essay Rough Draft Theranos started out as an epiphanic idea of a Stanford dropout by the name of Elizabeth Holmes. The privately-held medical laboratory service prided itself on its transparency and the innovative ways of collecting and processing lab results so that the patient would spend less money, less time, and less stress with regards to laboratory results (Topol 2013). Holmes wanted to reshape healthcare, promote altruism, and make a name for herself, but instead has been unable to adequately back up what she promised Theranos would represent. Elizabeth Holmes created Theranos to make a positive impact with patients around the world. The intentions of Holmes were noble, but after looking more closely it seems that Theranos’s claims have not been adequately substantiated. Theranos prided itself on their collection methods, using a finger prick to withdraw blood instead of the accustomed needle. In theory this sounds brilliant, but according to a study done by Kidd, Theranos’s finger pricking method yields odds of rejection rates at 12.5 compared to Quest and
According to a Wall Street Journal article written by John Carreyrou, Theranos has not publicly disclosed that several of their tests are done with machines bought from other companies. Consequently, it was found that Theranos had only one device they created called Edison, and that that device was only good for 15 tests out of the 240 Theranos offers (Carreyrou 2015). This is undoubtedly the downfall that hurts the credibility of Theranos the most. Theranos emphasized that transparency with their patients was of the utmost importance, and yet Theranos lied about how their machines operated and where they originated. If people cannot trust Theranos to explain their technology, how can patients trust Theranos with their