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Elizabeth Holmes: The Breakthrough of Instant Diagnosis

A Stanford dropout is bidding to make tests more accurate, less painful—and at a fraction of the current price.

Palo Alto, Calif.

'The reality within our health-care system today is that when someone you care about gets really sick, by the time you find that out it's most often too late to do anything about it. It's heartbreaking. Because in those moments, there's nothing you wouldn't do to change it, and too often you're helpless," says Elizabeth Holmes. "We're finding cancer when you have a tumor, or heart disease by virtue of the fact that you're having a heart attack."