17 votes

Buoyed by regulatory vacuums, Silicon Valley is building a booming online wellness market that aims to leave the doctor’s office behind

Posted by skybrian
Tags: usa, diagnostics, testing, technology, silicon valley, regulation, food and drug administration, wellness, doctors, author.elizabeth dwoskin, author.daniel gilbert, author.tatum hunter, source.the washington post, paywall
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/06/09/home-health-tests-doctors-fda/

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Title
Doctors couldn't help. They turned to a shadow system of DIY medical tests.
Published
Jun 9 2024
Word count
2127 words

7 comments

  1. [3]
    Bet
    Link
    I laughed out loud at this one. Pot, kettle.

    But the boom angers some doctors, who argue that circumventing their offices can lead to questionable remedies, misdiagnosis or delayed medical care.

    I laughed out loud at this one. Pot, kettle.

    11 votes
    1. [2]
      OBLIVIATER
      Link Parent
      I doubt most doctors are directly to blame for those issues, more often it's the private equity firms who bought out all the doctors offices and hospitals forcing them to cut every corner they...

      I doubt most doctors are directly to blame for those issues, more often it's the private equity firms who bought out all the doctors offices and hospitals forcing them to cut every corner they possibly can to save a buck.

      21 votes
      1. post_below
        Link Parent
        True, but nevertheless. Also deductibles, I imagine home tests are cheaper in some cases.

        True, but nevertheless. Also deductibles, I imagine home tests are cheaper in some cases.

        1 vote
  2. [2]
    chocobean
    Link
    I'm glad the article pointed out that it's regulatory vacuum AND disappointment from medical professionals AND how lucrative it is. Medical diagnostic and treatments are done poorly right now:...

    I'm glad the article pointed out that it's regulatory vacuum AND disappointment from medical professionals AND how lucrative it is.

    Narang said she understands that many who feel neglected by the medical system are driven to take matters into their own hands. [...] “The number one thing I hear from other women is that they’re tired of being gaslit by doctors,” Jung said.

    Medical diagnostic and treatments are done poorly right now: apathetic doctors, those working with decades old info, super long waits (in Canada), cost, discrimination, brain drain .... And another common thing I hear about now that we're older and our parents are older: you wait months and months for specialists and they basically shrug and say, maybe, we don't know, and there's no next step either.

    Which, maybe people don't realise, is that a TON of things we don't know about the human body. Pain and trauma in particular we seem to know next to nothing about relief. Or else we know which drugs work for some people, and if you're prescribed, then your side effects are a new pain, and/or if they don't work then here let's try more drugs because we don't actually know how they work or don't work for each individual.

    No wonder people are turning to snake oil pushers.

    It makes me angry to see desperate folks shell out thousands they don't have, but I also see the desperation and what else are they supposed to do? They're not Steve Jobs refusing solid treatment plans to go with fruit cakes. They're regular folks being told it's all in their head or nothing and told to just keep suffering. Of course they're going to fall prey to a social media landscape designed to feed them to shills

    8 votes
    1. skybrian
      Link Parent
      Yes, there’s a lot of snake oil out there and people don’t know what they’re doing. I was wondering what these tests cost, though. There is one price mentioned in the article: It seems to be...

      Yes, there’s a lot of snake oil out there and people don’t know what they’re doing. I was wondering what these tests cost, though. There is one price mentioned in the article:

      Function Health, a start-up founded by a Cleveland Clinic doctor in 2022, sells a $499 out-of-pocket membership offering more than 100 different lab-drawn tests, including for heart health, immunity and toxins.

      It seems to be annual testing, though I suppose you could cancel after doing it once.

      My experience with tests is that my doctor orders them, I go get blood drawn or pee into a cup, and they come back negative. So I guess that’s a “waste” in some respect, though it is reassuring.

      1 vote
  3. skybrian
    Link
    From the article: ... ... ...

    From the article:

    A new world of DIY testing is changing the relationship between physicians and patients, allowing people like Sharma to bypass the doctor’s office and take medical tests on their own. Buoyed by a growing network of independent labs, Silicon Valley start-ups now offer tests for a battery of conditions including menopause, food sensitivity, thyroid function, testosterone levels, ADHD and sexually transmitted diseases. The growth is fueled by a growing distrust of Big Medicine and confidence in home testing born from the Covid pandemic.

    A public eager for answers is swarming this parallel medical ecosystem. The home diagnostics market generates $5 billion annually and is expected to nearly double by 2032, according to the market research firm Precedence Research.

    ...

    While many home tests are standard diagnostics — shifted from a lab to the living room — others straddle the line between medicine and wellness. In this gray zone, incremental scientific innovations can be quickly funded, brought to market and peddled to consumers online before their health benefit has been proved.

    ...

    The tests often fall into a regulatory gap. While the U.S. Food and Drug Administration generally reviews all but the lowest-risk medical tests, it doesn’t supervise “wellness” tests marketed directly to consumers. Other start-ups avoid stringent FDA review by having physicians oversee some part of the testing process — creating what experts call a two-track system of standards.

    ...

    Yet the draw of these companies is that they offer options to those feeling let down by conventional doctors. Sharma credits Tiny Health’s gut-biome test, which was developed by a Mayo Clinic microbiologist but not approved by the FDA, with providing “a mind-blowing tool you can’t get from the traditional medical establishment.”

    The FDA is starting to pay attention: Regulators finalized a contentious rule in April to begin holding lab-made tests to the same standards as conventional ones, phasing out a historically hands-off position in response to the ballooning industry.

    7 votes