The idea Holmes pitched to Gardner was not the nanotainer multiple test thing, it was a skin patch that would deliver a dose of a drug through the skin, monitor the blood levels or effects of the drug, and adjust the ongoing dose based on that. And communicate wirelessly what it was doing. That was what Gardner said was impossible, and she was right. It was later that the product evolved into the one that Theranos produced.
The engineering problems might have been overcome if Holmes had been willing to accept a larger machine, but she insisted on a relatively small box because that was necessary for her vision of transforming health care by enabling people to do their own blood tests in their own homes whenever they wanted to, and the military to do blood tests on a battlefield (though I'm not sure why that would actually be helpful).
The premier book on Theranos and Holmes, "Bad Blood," written by the Wall Street Journal reporter, is a good read that I recommend.
The engineering problems might have been overcome if Holmes had been willing to accept a larger machine, but she insisted on a relatively small box because that was necessary for her vision of transforming health care by enabling people to do their own blood tests in their own homes whenever they wanted to, and the military to do blood tests on a battlefield (though I'm not sure why that would actually be helpful).
The premier book on Theranos and Holmes, "Bad Blood," written by the Wall Street Journal reporter, is a good read that I recommend.