05/09/2019
As a 19-year-old sophomore at Stanford, Elizabeth Holmes decided to transform diagnostic medicine so she dropped out of college and used her tuition money to start her own company, Theranos. Ten years later, Holmes, pictured here holding a micro-vial, is on the cutting edge of medical technology -- her new blood testing method allows hundreds of tests to be run using only a few drops of blood. And, Holmes' methods are cheaper, faster, more accurate, and less invasive than conventional methods which often require a separate vial of blood for every test. As Holmes recently told Wired.com, "I started this company because I wanted to spend my life changing our health care system. When someone you love gets really sick, most of the time when you find out, it’s too late to be able to do something about it. It’s heartbreaking... We wanted to make actionable health information accessible to people everywhere at the time it matters most. That means two things: being able to detect conditions in time to do something about them and providing access to information that can empower people to improve their lives." With Holmes' new tests, results are ready in less than four hours and their accuracy rate is high because they have virtually eliminated human error. Holmes spent years developing a machine that can run up to 30 laboratory tests with only one drop of blood -- and her company currently offers nearly 200 different tests. She has also just partnered with Walgreen’s Pharmacy, one of the US' largest pharmacy chains, to deliver on-site laboratory services in the coming months. And, to make diagnostic tests more accessible for people, they are far cheaper than traditional tests. In the interview, Holmes shared an example of a test that consumers often pay out of pocket -- fertility tests which can cost as much as $2,000. "These tests provide the data you need to figure out someone’s fertility, and some women can’t afford them," she observed. "Our new fertility panel is going to cost $35. That means women will be able to afford the tests. They’ll be able to better manage the process and take some of the stress out of trying to conceive." Ultimately, Holmes hopes that her technology will help people live healthier lives: "It drives me crazy when people talk about the scale as an indicator of health, because your weight doesn’t tell you what’s going on at a biochemical level. What’s really exciting is when you can begin to see changes in your lifestyle appear in your blood data. With some diseases, like type 2 diabetes, if people get alerted early they can take steps to avert getting sick. By testing, you can start to understand your body, understand yourself, change your diet, change your lifestyle, and begin to change your life."
