Huffington Magazine Issue 80 | Page 52

BRAVE NEW WORLD of the system, too. After all, health care is onesixth of the economy, and the Baby Boom is aging fast. But, at a youthful 61, SoonShiong may have the right combination of polymathic mind, medical experience, research chops, financial resources, ego and sa lesmanship to get his comprehensive “Rocket Ship” off the ground before anyone else. Indeed, parts of the flowcharts have come to life. They include a supercomputing facility in Arizona for rapidly sequencing entire human genomes; a national highspeed network called National LambdaRail; a research “bank” with tissue samples and sequenced genomes of cancer patients; a company that produces low-power medical monitors for easy home use; another that produces sophisticated body monitors; and research affiliations with hospitals, clinics and cancer-care centers nationwide. He also has deals with AT&T, Verizon and Vodafone. Last month, Soon-Shiong struck a deal with government officials in London to provide data processing services to the U.K.’s DNA data bank. 
 “In the past, the scientific, HUFFINGTON 12.22.13 technological and digital pieces did not in exist to assemble the whole,” Soon-Shiong says. “Now they do. I like to look for patterns, in science and life. It’s what I do.” Only an interconnected, instantaneous, molecule-to-manufacturer managed care system can tap science and save money, he insists. Studying Soon-Shiong’s flowcharts recently, a potential tech vendor marveled at what, at first glance, seemed like the work of a The richest man in Los Angeles is methodically constructing a far more fundamental medical effort: a digitally enabled, science-driven, personalized health care system. NASA programmer and a physics professor who stayed up too late one night. “Looks like you’re trying to boil the ocean here,” the vendor said, using a dismissive engineering phrase for an answer too large for the problem. “Let me correct you,” SoonShiong replied in his stately South African accent. “I am boiling the ocean.” If anyone can boil the ocean, it might be Soon-Shiong, says Dr. Eric Topol, author of The Creative Destruction of Medicine and the director of the Scripps Translational Science Institute in La Jol-