Theranos Teaches Silicon Valley a Hard Lesson About Accountability

The Theranos saga hit another low last week when the company informed regulators that it was voiding two years of tests from its Edison blood testing devices and sending of tens-of-thousands of revised tests results to doctors. This means that thousands of patients received incorrect results and were likely given the wrong treatments. Surely the doctors and the patient victims were not responsible for this misplaced trust. They trusted Theranos relying upon the brand value of the gilded names promoted by Theranos as its governance oversight, presuming somebody truly conducted some genuine diligent reviews. These names included such diplomatic and military titans such as two former U.S. Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and George Schultz, former U.S. senators; Sam Nunn and Bill Frist, former U.S. Secretary of Defense William Perry and – surprisingly – the tough-minded former CEO of Wells Fargo Richard Kovacevich.