Theranos Founder Faces a Test of Technology, and Reputation
The idea of rapid disruption in the healthcare industry makes me uncomfortable for some reason. I admire Holmes&#x27;s ambition and in interviews I&#x27;ve watched she seems competent and well guided but something just doesn&#x27;t seem to add up.<p>How was a college dropout able to get a break in the healthcare sector? Becoming a doctor requires years of education and training and along comes this young woman who just decides &quot;I&#x27;m going to change all of this.&quot; What? I don&#x27;t understand how a person with no experience, no vetting, no medical training, no engineering training, and frankly a product that I find to be of questionable value ends up getting millions in funding and at the head of a multibillion dollar company.<p>Perhaps I just don&#x27;t understand the phobia that some people have around blood tests but it is my understanding that you get a blood test as a way to gauge your health, not because it makes you feel nice. The hold up doesn&#x27;t seem to be that tons of people are afraid of needles otherwise they would be getting tested all the time. The hold up to people getting blood tests all the time is that doctors don&#x27;t order them, presumably because doctors don&#x27;t think people need them. 
As long as the test isn&#x27;t extremely uncomfortable for the patient, I would think that accuracy is really the only measure of quality for a test and it seems to me that they are willing to sacrifice accuracy in favor of making people feel comfortable.<p>Also, why would I ever get a blood test at a grocery store? Why would I ever trust some random employee at a food store to respect my privacy and be medically competent enough to administer a test like that. What exactly do I have to gain by getting one in the first place?<p>Correct me if I&#x27;m wrong on any of this because this is just my viewpoint as an outsider. I would however <i>never</i> get a blood test from Theranos and if I wanted one I would call my practitioner and have them administer one at a doctor&#x27;s office, not at the local grocery store.