Theranos Appoints Scientific and Advisory Medical Board

By Ron Shinkman, Editor, Laboratory Industry Report

Theranos, which continues to come under fire regarding the viability of its testing platform, has just named an eight-member scientific and advisory medical board that contains luminaries from the laboratory and health care sectors.

The members include:  Susan A. Evans, former president of the American Association For Clinical Chemistry; Bill Foege, M.D., former Director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Ann M. Gronowski and Jack Ladenson of the Washington University School of Medicine; David Helfet, M.D., and Andy O. Miller, M.D. of the Hospital for Special Surgery and New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medicine; Larry J. Kricka of the University of Pennsylvania; and Steven Spitalnik, M.D. of the Columbia University Medical Center.

“We are honored and humbled to bring together, and have the support of, such a distinguished and respected group of laboratory and medical leaders,” said Theranos Chief Executive Officer Elizabeth Holmes in a statement. “We could not be more proud to have the opportunity to work together with these incredible individuals as we work to build best in class systems across our labs and product development initiatives.”

The appointments come as Theranos’ laboratory management was blasted by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in a lengthy inspection report of its California facility that was recently made public, and the reliability of its testing platform, which it claims can perform assays with just a few drops of blood. A study recently published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation claimed the variability of Theranos’ test results were significantly higher than the same tests when they are conducted by LabCorp and Quest Diagnostics.

More detailed coverage of Theranos will appear in the next issue of Laboratory Industry Report.