Tempus is an appropriate name for the company co-founded by Eric Lefkofsky, who also serves as CEO. The Latin term means time, as in keeping musical time or rhythm. One look at this innovation in technology and you cannot help but see the rhythmic flow.
Imagine going into a hospital and having a treatment plan designed for you. Data technology coordinates an entire history and places the information at the fingertips of a physician. Every physician must retrieve information from a patient questionnaire, radiology, diagnostic lab work, genomic lab work, pharmaceutical intervention, and an information retrieving phone call from a former physician.
Diagnosis may take days instead of minutes or hours. The time for changes is now. Tempus changes the way we communicate on a molecular level.
Currently, we don’t know the outcomes of treatment of illness. A physician will make an educated guess until further information is obtained. A specific protocol is followed, and the outcome is left to statistical chance.
There is no personalized data stream that tells a physician that the patient may present with a negative reaction from this treatment. It would be more responsible for the medical community to have the means to determine which patient will respond best to this treatment. What patient may have an adverse reaction to the treatment, including acceleration of disease? Who is susceptible to aggressive forms of disease?
A singular data stream marries technology with the medical data collection which analyses it into a single data stream. The physicians can give a diagnosis and treatment plan in real time. Those few days can make the difference in the life of the patient.
Patients that have faith in their physician may respond better to treatment. Backing up an opinion with actual data would benefit the morale of the patient. They may be more receptive to treatment and more hopeful about the future.
There is more technology in manufacturing than in the medical field. Physicians do not have a large data presence. Knowing the patterns in a large-scale database can give information about trends.
Genomic information can prevent progression and lead to better chances of wholeness. The process is antiquated. It is slow and the cost of storing records is a waste. Today’s technology can store in minute space. It may be retrieved within seconds.
If there is an industry that has a need to move into the 21st century it’s medicine. Giving our next generation a better chance than we had is the name of the game. Eric Lefkofsky found scientists, genomic researchers, and data technologists and converged it into a new industry.
The future may experience better opportunities to provide adequate care. We make medicine very complicated. We feel our way into a diagnosis. We guess at treatment.
If we can have a singular stream of data, then the opportunity for medical advances is within reach. We can no longer leave health decisions up to whether an insurance company agrees that it is medically necessary. It’s time to do away with the unnecessary testing because we guess incorrectly. We need to turn away from herd immunology or blanketed approaches.
The way forward is through technology. Tempus is leading the charge. This is the first step toward a healthier future for our children and beyond.