Theranos phenomenon – part 4: Theranos at an International Conference

Theranos phenomenon – Part 5: Theranos’ presentation at the American Association for Clinical Chemistry Annual Conference 2016

“…Although we disagreed with the invitation [4], we acknowledge here that AACC President, Dr. Patricia Jones, made it very clear in her opening remarks that the presentation does not mean that AACC endorses Theranos, and that no CME credits were allocated. She also recruited an excellent panel, consisting of herself, Dr. Dennis Lo and Dr. Steven Master, two highly recognized and respected clinical chemists, who did a good job in asking pertinent questions to Ms. Holmes and her associates.…”

“…This journal has followed the Theranos story closely over the last 2 years and provided frequent updates [1][2][3][4]. Elizabeth Holmes, the Chief Executive of Theranos, presented to an audience of over 2500 clinical chemists and other laboratory scientists, as well as to an impressive number of reporters from national and international media.…”

“…She avoided talking about Theranos' past and the difficulties of her company [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]. She also made it clear that her presentation would focus on the future, not the past, and she distanced herself from the previous "Edison" instrument and introduced a new analyzer named "MiniLab".…”

The Theranos phenomenon, scientific transparency and freedom of speech

“…The complaint was apparently triggered by the last paper [4]. In this letter, the author outspokenly argues that the invitation of Ms. Holmes to present a lecture at the AACC annual conference 2016 was inappropriate.…”

“…Since July 2015 Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (CCLM) has published a series of four articles on the up-and-coming laboratory diagnostics enterprise Theranos, (co)authored by one of the members of our editorial board, Eleftherios Diamandis [1][2][3][4]. There were two opinion papers and two letters to the editor.…”