

Cue, the home lab for quantified self - DiabloD3
https://cue.me/

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zdw
This looks like a hypochondriac's wet dream...

As useful as self-diagnostic equipment cam be, the more we can measure, the
more likely people with unwarranted health worries can run to the doctor with
"My X level is off by 5% says my $150 uncalibrated thing".

I get the feeling that this falls somewhere between very useful (like glucose
level to a diabetic), and negatively helpful (a misinterpreted level that
causes unhelpful behavior).

~~~
bobowzki
Haha yeah, I'm a physician and I can tell you there're few things worse then
when a patient get all worked up about some number that is "0.1" too high/too
low. It's usually totally meaningless, gives groundless anxiety and waste
everyones time.

It's not easy to interpret these numbers and you have to have quite a deep
understanding of statistics, i.e you can be in the normal range and be sick,
and you can be outside and be healthy. Type i/ii errors, precision, accuracy,
calibration etc etc. I'm sure hackernews knows what's up I'm sure.

It's said about 90% of all diagnosis can be made only on taking the history.
Tests are normally only done to assure, quantify, guide treatment etc.

* Testosterone: I have no idea why you would be interested in measuring this at home and I strongly suspect this could lead to misguided treatment with severe side effects.

* Inflamation: Probably a C-reactive protein. Pretty much useless on it's own.

* Fertility: Not sure exactly what they measure but I guess LSH/FSH. This job can be more easily done with a thermometer.

* Vitamin D: If you are worried, get it checked ONCE. No need to check day to day. If you take a supplement, your body will regulate the rest.

* Influenza: Again, not sure what they are testing and why you would want to do this as there's no specific treatment. When you do a test, always reflect what you will use the result for.

IMHO this device lacks the "test" that actually would be useful, like *
glucose * maybe TSH * your weight * your activity level * your caloric intake
* your sleep

Because these are things that actually mean a lot to your general wellbeing.

[not native english speaker disclaimer]

~~~
encoderer
Well, I'm an occasional patient and there're few things worse than when a
doctor acts like taking an active role in your own healthcare is an
inconvenience.

I, for one, would not shed a tear if the role of human diagnostician is
replaced by computer systems with far more raw data to work with than was ever
before possible.

Watching a family member with an extended illness, I came to the conclusion
that we would be better off if doctors stopped thinking of themselves AS
healthcare and were instead the human face of _delivering_ healthcare.

~~~
bobowzki
> I came to the conclusion that we would be better off if doctors stopped
> thinking of themselves AS healthcare and were instead the human face of
> delivering healthcare.

I believe you are right. I'm sorry you had bad experiences. All physicians are
different.

I believe all patients should take an active role in their healthcare (that
includes smoking, diet and exercise). My point is only that sometimes a
misappropriate amount of time can be wasted on very very subtle differences
and we forget the big picture.

Computer diagnostics is the future. I'm on HN for a reason.

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jamesmoss
I'm really fed up of sites like this that hijack scrolling, it prevents you
from skim reading. Instead of scanning 100% of the page's content I've just
left the site after reading about 20%.

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jp555
I would have thought 20% was skim reading?

~~~
aik
There's a difference between reading 20% of 100% and 100% of 20%.

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derwildemomo
I totally like cool products like the one on display here. But i'm so tired of
those preordering-sites.. really, i want to order your stuff. now. Tell me
when it's finished, put the site online. If you really need an indication
whether someone likes/needs it, perform market research without irritating
potential customers. And if you need additional funding to make your vision
happen, sites like kickstarter offer a clean and generally well understood way
of making that happen.

No, I'm not going to preorder a product now that ships sometime in 2015. Not
even for a 50% discount.

~~~
cyberneticcook
I understand your frustration but I think pre-orders are important for them to
understand how many units to manufacture. What if they produce too many, and
people don't buy them ? what if too little and they can't cope with the demand
?

~~~
Cthulhu_
Acceptable and calculable business risks. How did new products launch before
the internet?

~~~
dools
I can think of an example of an industry that has been doing pre-sales to fund
production for a long time and that's property development.

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motoboi
This is great, but the video seems a bit misleading. Seems like a all-in-one
device with a magic collector capable of getting instant results of several
indicators on a single sample, be it blood or saliva. But the site make it
clear that an analysis package is needed for each molecule being tracked and
that results take minutes. Nothing is said about packages lifespan and sample
collectors reusability. Anyway, could someone familiar with this matter give
us some background on the hardware?

UPDATE: from the FAQ:

"Cartridges are single-use and disposable. To enhance user safety and hygiene
as well as minimalize contamination of samples, the Sample Wand permanently
locks inside the cartridge and is disposed of with the cartridge." (...) "A
5-pack of inflammation vitamin D, fertility, testosterone, cartridges costs
$20/pack. A 3-pack of flu cartridges costs $30."

Definitively not the everyday tracking thing seen on the video.

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Expez
From the FAQ:

You can track 5 key health molecules: inflammation, vitamin D, fertility,
influenza, and testosterone in just minutes, at home.

I was trying to figure out what the device can tell you about yourself, and it
appears it can't tell you very much at present. Also, these things aren't
'molecules'.

As an MVP this is exciting stuff! In a few years we might have something that
is actually useful.

~~~
fabian2k
Well, 2 out of 5 are actually molecules. But this kind of sloppy language
doesn't exactly inspire confidence.

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valdiorn
On a scale of 1-10, how bullshit is this?

I'd actually benefit from being able to monitor my testosterone levels, so
this interests me.

~~~
tomkinstinch
I worked for a company in this space for a bit. My 2% of a dollar: the tech
probably isn't BS. They're most likely using direct colorimetric assays, and
also possibly immunoassays (think ELISA). I'd be concerned about the
sensitivity of their assays from such a small sample volume (a drop of blood
is about 20 microliters). Vitamin D in particular is tricky due to its low
blood concentration. I'd hope that they are doing something clever with
fluidics to amplify the signal. The price of the reader seems about right (if
just a bit low to encourage adoption). Their business model is likely a)
dependent on a razor-and-blades strategy, with expensive consumables, and b)
dependent on the system cost being reimbursable through insurance.

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pgt
I would love to comment on the product, but the site's scrolling locks up
every now and then and most images flicker or don't display in Chrome Canary.
Designers, please don't break the Web by overriding spacebar :(.

------
read
I wish this product explained in one sentence why I need it.

How would my world come to an end without it? I often wonder if the ADHD you
get from availability of all this data subtracts more than a product adds.

" _Be your most motivated_ ". How did our ancestors do it? Keeping things
simple is as important as having the power promised by information. We still
fail at the simple things, while getting distracted by complicated things.

 _" Add a sample"_. A sample of what? I'm also curious about how they measure
how well you sleep and how they achieved wireless charging.

~~~
cinskiy
A sample of something containg testosterone, flu, inflammation, vitamin D and
fertility! Not sure how something can contain fertility, but still.

~~~
kaybe
Maybe hormone stuff, at least for women?

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serf
I'm not sure about anyone else, but the fact that they kept using the word
'sample' instead of what sample they were referring to bothered me. Thankfully
further down in their FAQ (the hardware FAQ) it mentions what samples are
(blood, saliva, or nostril swabs).

I kept imagining this "simple and easy to use sample wand" as a massive self-
administered spinal tap, sort of like those water extractors from the 'Tank
Girl' movie.

Sort of funny when you're to the point that marketing talk makes you assume
the very worst possible scenario.

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nkozyra
First, a fabulous idea that is simply not ready.

I like the concept here, but the mobile integration seems wholly arbitrary and
shoe-horned. Yes, we want everything mobile, but if I'm sticking my blood
sample in this thing I don't know why I couldn't just get an email or have it
connect directly to my device.

Like others here have said, I would mostly want guarantees about the efficacy
of the device wrt results. And I'd want a whole bunch more than fertility (is
this just a LH measurement), "inflammation," vitamin D and the flu. Perhaps
that's a phase two?

And to echo others, please stop scrolljacking. Thanks.

~~~
tomkinstinch
"Inflammation" is likely measurement of C-reactive protein (CRP)
concentration.

~~~
nkozyra
I'm not doubting they can quantify it, I'm just not sure what that info alone
tells us.

And there's such a disparity of metrics here that you're getting a pretty
incomplete health picture unless you want to know if you're infertile or have
the flu.

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cjrandolph
For some reason I feel this will be bought by a Google or Facebook before
making it to market. I can't explain why, I just get that vibe.

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mpg33
I hope more of these type of products come out. I think real time tracking of
a persons biomarkers will be evolutionary in the health space.

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cottonseed
From the FAQ:

How accurate is Cue?

We use rigorous, gold-standard internal testing and validation techniques to
evaluate the performance of Cue. We cannot make any specific claims on the
performance of the device, because it is not yet cleared by the FDA. However,
we will not release Cue until it has met our own internal performance
standards.

~~~
jpmattia
> _because it is not yet cleared by the FDA._

I confess I'm dying to know how "Inflammation is elevated, recover with a
green smoothie" is going to get past the FDA.

What is the measure of inflammation? Are they really measuring ESR, CRP, and
PV? If so, how would you predict that recovery would occur via the medicinal
green smoothie, as opposed to knowing that there are early signs of, say,
psoriatic arthritis?

Kudos if they can pull that off.

~~~
tel
They can pass the FDA as being validated to measure certain biometrics, but
it's going to be really difficult to be considered a treatment.

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Xdes
So what are they going to do with all the health data they harvest from this?
I don't suppose the device will be offlinable.

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bjxrn
For me on Chrome, there seems to be some broken loop somewhere. It continually
requests and then cancels those requests to certain sprite images. It still
downloads at least part of them though, so you're getting maybe ~100kb/sec
continually downloading for as long as you're on that site.

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desireco42
Very interesting device. I would be very interested in getting one, but again,
before there is actual device on sale, I am not parting my money for video
alone.

I wish you produce it as soon as possible and get my money.

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amrtn
I don't know why, but it creeps me out. If it's that easy to test your body
for "molecular" levels . How long before you are asked to be tested at your
workplace, on interviews, etc.

Gattaca anyone?

~~~
Expez
It's already easy to test for political affiliation / religious beliefs as
part of the interview process, but people aren't doing that. No reason to
believe that something like this will be different.

~~~
avz
The issue with political and religious beliefs is that they're generally
irrelevant to your work but may be basis for discrimination. The chemical
composition of your blood and other tissues may be relevant to your work but
is generally not expected to be basis for discrimination.

This is why I think you counterpoint is not exactly spot-on. On the other hand
I share your disagreement with Gattaca-inspired fear mongering: if chemical
analysis of your tissues can provide useful information for recruitment we
should embrace it. Interviewing is flawed and hard as it is, so any
improvement should be welcome. My fear would be that chemical composition
turns out completely useless like many other simplistic solutions to complex
issues around selecting the right humans for any job.

~~~
serf
>if chemical analysis of your tissues can provide useful information for
recruitment we should embrace it.

I disagree.

There are no fields in which poor health is an advantage. So, that idea
extrapolated, their are no jobs which wouldn't benefit in some way from having
the most healthy staff possible.

I'm of the opinion that it is the job of recruitment staff to secure employees
who are capable of doing the job that's asked of them, capable of advancement,
and capable of a degree of amiability which will allow them to work well with
the other parts of the system.

If chemical analysis were to be used normally in the course of recruitment,
it'd no longer be a game of determining if the candidate was capable of the
task, but rather a min-maxing of attributes which would be expected to produce
a company with the results desired.

Simply put : I, too, fear that chemical composition is far too simple a
criteria to judge a possible (human) candidate on.

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jhull
Someone needs to make a parody video of this ASAP: "Man takes cue out of his
mouth...smartphone says: You have 4 hours to live." "Woman pulls cue out of
her ear...smartphone says: You are deaf"

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TTPrograms
So what does this thing actually measure? I have zero reason to think that the
tech can deliver on this. It's raman-spectroscopy-on-a-key-chain over and
over, and at least they had a faux demo.

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robg
It will be interesting to see if the FDA comes down on this. On the one hand,
they aren't selling anything, yet. On the other, they are making promises
about efficacy for the initial users.

~~~
tomkinstinch
It looks like they are in the data gathering phase for a 510(k), as an exempt
IVD. From their site:

"Cue Inc. will be conducting tests and collecting information and data from a
number of individuals to ultimately support submission to FDA of a pre-market
notification 510(k). We hope that you will consider voluntarily participating
in these tests. These tests are exempt for Investigational Device Exemption
requirements because the testing (a) is noninvasive; (b) does not require an
invasive sampling procedure that presents significant risk; (c) does not by
design or intention introduce energy into a subject, and (d) is not used as a
diagnostic procedure without confirmation of the diagnosis by another,
medically established diagnostic product or procedure."

I'm curious what they'll cite for predicate devices.

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kyberias
The broken scrolling totally destroys the experience. Also, the lack of text
made me wonder whether the page was loaded completely.

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tiziano88
scrolling is totally broken on chrome mobile, I can't even see half of the
pictures

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fasteo
Apple is buying this thing in no time

