What You Need to Know About Theranos Technology: Frequently Asked Questions

Question 1

What is Theranos?

Accepted Answer

Theranos is/was(?) a health-tech company that aimed to disrupt the traditional laboratory testing industry with its proprietary diagnostic device called Edison. This device can perform multiple tests on small samples of blood.

Question 2

What was Theranos' goal?

Accepted Answer

The primary goal of Theranos was to make blood testing simpler and more accessible. Instead of relying on traditional lab testing methods which require multiple vials of blood drawn from patients which can prove inconvenient at best and sometimes traumatizing or even dangerous under certain conditions like dehydration or fainting episodes. The company wanted people to be able to take…

Question 3

How did Theranos plan on achieving this goal?

Accepted Answer

Theranos claimed it could do all kinds of medically necessary blood tests with significantly smaller sample sizes than what traditional labs required by employing “nanotainer” technology and proprietary hardware that performed hundreds of tests 'automatically' using very little chemical reagent applied uniformly through the system.

Question 4

Was there anything special about their nanotainer technology?

Accepted Answer

Yes! Unlike typical venous draws where only liquid plasma or serum is obtained from the veins after centrifugation while cells are thrown away. Their patented nanotainer process used fingertip pinpricks to acquire capillary blood with minute quantities of cells still in the sample, more fully revealing what's happening inside a patient's body tissues than traditional venous draws.

Question 5

What was wrong with Theranos' technology?

Accepted Answer

A few things. Firstly, regulatory issues because they bypassed getting proper approvals from bodies like the FDA for most of its diagnostic tests. Secondly, it was not nearly as accurate and reliable as advertised which posed significant risks to patients that relied on their results. Finally, much of their internal quality-control data was reportedly falsified in order to demonstrate victories…

Question 6

Were there any actual consequences for these problems?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Eventually, after years of investigations and growing scrutiny over star-studded board members and questionable claims that were made by Elizabeth Holmes herself about her education, experience and abilities- criminal charges were brought against her in a federal court over fraud allegations related to what prosecutors call "a multi-million dollar scheme". She faces up to 20 years behind bars if…