[phire]

I don't think so.

Theranos wanted to do any and all blood tests from a single drop of blood. Toshiba is limiting themselves to just a single kind of test, which I'm guessing the science agrees is possible with such a small blood sample.

[beenBoutIT]

The problem w/ Theranos was that at first glance everything about it was physically too small. A single drop of blood is too little, the cost of running the tests was too low - to do all of the separate tests it was supposed to be able to do and still be within the realm of the possible.

The Toshiba machine doing one type of test from one drop of blood at a cost of ~$184 is well within the range of what should be possible in the real world.

[bsder]

The signal to noise ratio is still devastatingly bad.

Most cancers aren't throwing large amounts of detectable crap into your bloodstream. If they were, people would be doing routine cancer tests when you do things like cholesterol screening.

The fact that nobody can do this with vials makes me suspicious of being able to do this with drops.

[kasabali]

That's a good start. If they'd be able to do 13 tests from a drop of blood from each of my fingers that'd be 130 tests!

[projektfu]

Ouch. Give me a needle please.

[beenBoutIT]

The finger prick is an interesting non-sexual way to positively identify masochists. Everything about the finger prick takes away control while maximizing pain. A nurse can't/won't give you an arm jab until you relax your arm but they'll detonate a finger jabber randomly with an audible 'snap' while you're helplessly watching it all happen in front of you.

[tidenly]

I haven't laughed at a post this hard in ages. thanks.

[ngngngng]

Dude what

[hermitdev]

Finger pricks aren't that bad. Ive been hospitalized several times with cyclical vomiting. It throws my entire body chemistry way off and often looks like I'm diabetic (I'm not). So, I typically get several finger pricks for blood sugar tests daily when I'm admitted. The finger pricks are nearly painless. I dont typically even notice them. Really only gets bad if they use the same finger repeatedly and bruising starts occuring. Its really not bad at all if you rotate fingers.

The IV is far more painful, of course, it is also a fairly large gauge needle. I still have a track mark from my last hospital stay in my arm due to an intubated IV (a blow out) 3 months ago. It also took about 3 weeks for the swelling in my forearm to go down after that.

I also get weekly allergy shots. Slightly more painful than a finger prick, but far less than a typical vaccination.