Skip to main content

Main menu

  • HOME
  • ONLINE FIRST
  • CURRENT ISSUE
  • ALL ISSUES
  • AUTHORS & REVIEWERS
  • SUBSCRIBE
  • RESOURCES
    • About BJGP
    • Conference
    • Advertising
    • BJGP Blog
    • eLetters
    • Feedback
    • Librarian information
    • Alerts
    • Resilience
    • Video
  • RCGP
    • BJGP for RCGP members
    • BJGP Open
    • RCGP eLearning
    • InnovAIT Journal
    • Jobs and careers
    • RCGP e-Portfolio

User menu

  • Subscriptions
  • Alerts
  • Log in

Search

  • Advanced search
British Journal of General Practice
  • RCGP
    • BJGP for RCGP members
    • BJGP Open
    • RCGP eLearning
    • InnovAIT Journal
    • Jobs and careers
    • RCGP e-Portfolio
  • Subscriptions
  • Alerts
  • Log in
  • Follow bjgp on Twitter
  • Visit bjgp on Facebook
  • Blog
Advertisement
British Journal of General Practice

Advanced Search

  • HOME
  • ONLINE FIRST
  • CURRENT ISSUE
  • ALL ISSUES
  • AUTHORS & REVIEWERS
  • SUBSCRIBE
  • RESOURCES
    • About BJGP
    • Conference
    • Advertising
    • BJGP Blog
    • eLetters
    • Feedback
    • Librarian information
    • Alerts
    • Resilience
    • Video
Life & Times

Books: Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup

To Persuade and Deceive

Elizabeth Dapre
British Journal of General Practice 2019; 69 (689): 616. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp19X706937
Elizabeth Dapre
ACF, ST1, Wythenshawe Hospital, Manchester. Email: elizabeth.dapre@nhs.net
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: elizabeth.dapre@nhs.net
  • Article
  • Figures & Data
  • Info
  • eLetters
  • PDF
Loading
John Carreyrou Picador, 2019, PB, 320pp, £9.99, 978-1509868087
Figure1

A chilling account of one woman’s mission to become a self-made billionaire, Bad Blood is an exceptional demonstration of courageous journalism by John Carreyrou. Elizabeth Holmes was named by Forbes magazine as the youngest self-made female billionaire in the US after her company, Theranos, was valued at $9 billion in 2014. Carreyrou paints a disturbing image of Holmes’s desire to attain financial success above all else: a Stanford drop-out, Holmes had had a string of entrepreneurial ventures (and failings) before focusing her ambitions on Theranos — a company set up to ‘revolutionise’ blood testing using a single drop of blood from a finger prick. Perhaps most disturbing was how far Holmes was prepared to go to secure her own financial success; despite a string of problems with the device, she continued to deceive investors with her cunning charm and calculated omissions of the facts. With friends in high places and a striking ability to manipulate rich men, the money kept on coming. Holmes was a master of deception; her vision and charisma her only selling point, for the technology she so desperately desired would never work. Finger-prick testing was never successful, and full blood draws were always needed, which were then run on established commercial analysers to give accurate results. Laboratory technicians who raised concerns were promptly fired, forced to sign comprehensive non-disclosure agreements, and frogmarched out of the building. Any employee found discussing Theranos’s activities outside of the workplace was slapped with an entirely unaffordable lawsuit and personal threats. Holmes would stop at nothing to get what she wanted, even if it meant putting the health of the public at risk or driving employees to suicide.

Bad Blood is a worrying account of the power of persuasion, reiterating the essential need for critical and expert review of medical devices prior to their use within the public domain. With Holmes now facing a prison sentence for fraud, this book is a stark reminder to us all that success in health care must be far more than an enchanting pitch from a deluded visionary.

  • © British Journal of General Practice 2019
View Abstract
Back to top
Previous ArticleNext Article

In this issue

British Journal of General Practice: 69 (689)
British Journal of General Practice
Vol. 69, Issue 689
December 2019
  • Table of Contents
  • Index by author
Download PDF
Download PowerPoint
Article Alerts
Or,
sign in or create an account with your email address
Email Article

Thank you for recommending British Journal of General Practice.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person to whom you are recommending the page knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Books: Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from British Journal of General Practice
(Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from British Journal of General Practice.
Citation Tools
Books: Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup
Elizabeth Dapre
British Journal of General Practice 2019; 69 (689): 616. DOI: 10.3399/bjgp19X706937

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero

Share
Books: Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup
Elizabeth Dapre
British Journal of General Practice 2019; 69 (689): 616. DOI: 10.3399/bjgp19X706937
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One
  • Mendeley logo Mendeley

Jump to section

  • Top
  • Article
  • Figures & Data
  • Info
  • eLetters
  • PDF

More in this TOC Section

  • Quaternary prevention: an evidence-based concept aiming to protect patients from medical harm
  • Books: Tools of the Trade: Poems for New Doctors (Third Edition)
Show more Life & Times

Related Articles

Cited By...

Advertisement

 

Register by 10 December and save 15% at the BJGP Research Conference, 12 March 2020

BJGP Open

 

@BJGPjournal's Likes on Twitter

 
 

British Journal of General Practice

NAVIGATE

  • Home
  • Current Issue
  • All Issues
  • Online First
  • Authors & reviewers

RCGP

  • BJGP for RCGP members
  • BJGP Open
  • RCGP eLearning
  • InnovAiT Journal
  • Jobs and careers
  • RCGP e-Portfolio

MY ACCOUNT

  • RCGP members' login
  • Subscriber login
  • Activate subscription
  • Terms and conditions

NEWS AND UPDATES

  • About BJGP
  • Alerts
  • RSS feeds
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

AUTHORS & REVIEWERS

  • Submit an article
  • Writing for BJGP: research
  • Writing for BJGP: other sections
  • BJGP editorial process & policies
  • BJGP ethical guidelines
  • Peer review for BJGP

CUSTOMER SERVICES

  • Advertising
  • Contact subscription agent
  • Copyright
  • Librarian information

CONTRIBUTE

  • BJGP Blog
  • eLetters
  • Feedback

CONTACT US

BJGP Journal Office
RCGP
30 Euston Square
London NW1 2FB
Tel: +44 (0)20 3188 7679
Email: journal@rcgp.org.uk

British Journal of General Practice is an editorially-independent publication of the Royal College of General Practitioners
© 2019 British Journal of General Practice

Print ISSN: 0960-1643
Online ISSN: 1478-5242