Opinion reflects on Theranos failures and the impracticality of its testing model

The piece appears in STAT’s First Opinion section and is authored by Torie Bosch, who invites readers to submit letters of response to opinion essays.

Bosch highlights a letter from Tyler Shultz, a former Theranos insider, expressing respect for his experience as a whistleblower.

The commentary argues that even if Theranos had a functioning testing device, its economic model would not succeed in a clinical laboratory setting. Finger‑stick sampling is more painful than standard venipuncture, and venipuncture provides enough blood for repeat tests that clinicians often request.

Because of these practical and financial mismatches, the author concludes that Theranos’s approach could not be integrated into routine health‑care workflows.