Read this story in English
When the startup Theranos promised to revolutionize the medical testing industry by requiring only a few drops of blood, but the end result was a disaster: company officials made false promises that led to multiple criminal sanctions.
Now, six years after Theranos’ spectacular collapse, companies are once again exploring the field of blood-testing innovation. Among them is an Austin company that has introduced a new type of “finger-prick” blood test to a dozen of the city’s pharmacies.
This summer, Austin-based Babson Diagnostics launched the BetterWay blood test, which it bills itself as “an alternative to big needles.”
With the BetterWay method, the patient places his or her hand over a warming device. A pharmacy technician then pricks the patient’s fingertip and draws a pea-sized amount of blood with a small syringe — no long needles or multiple pricks to find a vein required.
Jim Ross was one of the first patients to try the method at Lake Hills Pharmacy in Westlake. He said he learned about BetterWay from his daughter, who has a connection to the company.
“I like how comfortable it is,” she said after having her blood drawn in August. “I went to my annual physical and a doctor made changes to my medications, so it’s nice to be able to just go through it.” [a la farmacia] and get a test to see if things are working well.”
Before an appointment, patients like Ross must choose the tests they want from a menu of 11 common blood tests such as cholesterol tests, kidney function tests and blood counts, among others. Within a day, they receive a text message with an explanation of their results.
Michael Minasi / KUT News
Pharmacy technician Bristelle McCullough, right, administers a BetterWay blood test to Jim Ross at Lake Hills Pharmacy in Austin.
Health insurance may cover BetterWay with a doctor’s referral. It is also available as a patient purchase, with prices starting at around $15 for a single test, up to more than $200 for a package of tests.
Eric Olson, founder and chief operating officer of BetterWay’s parent lab, Babson Diagnostics, says he hopes these on-demand tests will appeal to so-called “health optimizers” — people who want to monitor and take care of their health to the fullest. But his main motivation is to remove the barriers that often prevent patients from getting routine blood tests.
“We asked ourselves: What would make blood testing more convenient, more accessible, and more likely for the average person to get tested and monitor their health?” Olson says.
Obstacles to blood testing
According to Olson, some are held back by fear of needles or seeing multiple tubes of their own blood. Others find it difficult to keep an appointment to have their blood drawn; they may not have reliable transportation or be able to take time off work to visit a doctor’s office that is only open on weekdays.
Olson started Babson Diagnostics after a career at medical technology giant Siemens Healthineers, where he oversaw technology used in traditional diagnostic labs. According to Olson, BetterWay’s approach breaks the mold because pharmacy technicians and all types of professionals (not just blood draw specialists) can be trained to use it in appropriate settings outside of the doctor’s office.
Eric Olson, founder of BetterWay Blood Testing, is pictured next to a BetterWay blood sample preparation device at Lake Hills Pharmacy on August 9, 2024.
So far, this includes independent Austin pharmacies like Lake Hills Pharmacy and People’s Pharmacy, along with several HEB pharmacies.
“It’s something easy to introduce into your life and harder to just skip,” she said.
Stepping out of the shadow of Theranos
BetterWay is one of many companies trying to gain a foothold in the market for blood tests that use only small amounts of blood. All of those companies are challenged to respond to questions and skepticism surrounding Theranos’ crimes. Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, He is serving an 11-year sentence by fraud and conspiracy in a federal prison in Bryan, Texas.
“It’s unfortunate that many of us are skeptical because Theranos didn’t do it the right way,” said David Koch, a professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at Emory University in Atlanta.
Theranos said it could test for hundreds of diseases — from HIV to cancer — using just a few drops of blood on a small, proprietary device. It didn’t work. Instead, the company often diluted samples and ran them through traditional lab equipment, leading to inaccurate results.
BetterWay’s approach is different. It uses an on-site device that prepares samples for testing. But the actual testing is done in Babson Diagnostics’ lab using relatively traditional lab analyzers from Siemens Healthineers and other manufacturers. However, Olson says Babson’s lab has been built from the ground up with the use of samples with small amounts of blood in mind. And for now, it’s sticking to the basics — offering only a certain number of routine tests.
Bristelle McCullough, a pharmacy technician, draws a blood sample into the BetterWay sample preparation device.
Meanwhile, a company called Truvian Health is developing a small, tabletop analyzer that would perform blood tests at the point of collection, much like Theranos’ device. Several other companies offer at-home testing services that use mailed kits to collect blood samples to test for allergies, hormone levels and other issues.
Gaining the trust of the medical community
Industry experts, including Koch, are delighted with the innovation. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t approaching it with caution.
“We are interested in this new technology, but it has to work well,” says Koch. “And how do we know it works well? By testing it, by putting it to the test.”
Koch says he needs to see published data in peer-reviewed studies demonstrating BetterWay’s performance against traditional venipuncture blood testing methods before he starts to rely on the service.
He also noted that drawing blood from the fingertip, which is drawn from capillaries rather than veins, poses a number of logistical problems. For example, when blood is drawn from the fingertip, red blood cells can be damaged in a process called hemolysis.
Olson says the BetterWay method minimizes the risk of hemolysis, especially compared to at-home extraction methods. BetterWay shares some clinical trial data on its website And, according to Olson, they currently have several applications to medical journals pending.
In the coming years, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will also step up its oversight of tests developed by independent labs like Babson Diagnostics, thanks to a new rule aimed at preventing tests from entering the market “with unfounded claims of innovation”.
Olson is aware that fighting skepticism from the medical community will be a challenge, thanks in large part to Theranos. But he also credits Theranos for one thing: trying to shake up a static industry.
“As fraudulent and disastrous as it was for public trust, it was inspiring because it opened minds to the possibility that blood testing could be different than it is today,” he said.
