The third-party lab machines Theranos was secretly using will often dilute samples during their general operation. This is a known factor engineered into their design and accounted for in their certification/regulation. Theranos was secretly diluting blood samples even more, well beyond what the machines they were using were originally meant for. What they were doing was legally, ethically, and scientifically completely distinct. Prison time is definitely deserved.
I guess im not fullybinformed on their actions, but of course the 3rd party machines automate the dilution process and in some cases dilution is done manually. Obviously working with the equipment outside of spec is wrong.
Because Theranos used very small samples of blood, when they got diluted, the error margins on the measurements increased a lot because it was hard to get the ratio of blood to dilution fluid consistent when samples are small.
Yeah, but they diluted them knowing the deviations were wild, then purposely tossed outliers to rein it in. It's statistical fraud 101. The premise is that you can't get enough blood (or quality of blood, as in the potassium test) from finger pricks to do the tests they claimed; period. They knew that soon after the start, and perpetrated the fraud for years.
