Tempus - Improving Cancer Patient Outcome with Advanced Technology for our Healthcare Systems
Tempus is a technology company that is building the world's largest library of molecular
and clinical data and an operating system to make that data accessible and useful. Its goal is to “propel the next breakthrough in healthcare”.
The reason? To improve cancer patient outcomes. There are approximately 17 million Americans living with cancer in the US and at its core Tempus is at the forefront of bringing essential technology into the healthcare system. It provides genomic sequencing services and collects, cleanses and analyses data from many different areas such as pathology, radiology, molecular and clinical data. This empowers physicians to make real time, data driven decisions which, as well as freeing up their time, allows patients benefit from data collected on the treatment of cancer patients who have gone become them.
“In order to truly explore what is possible in cancer care, at times we have to take an expansive look inside the individual genomics of a patient’s disease,” said Gary Palmer, MD, MPH, Chief Medical Officer at Tempus.
The technology is there to look inside the body and one of the questions that can be asked is “What will we do this technology”? Can we look inside the genetic code and rearrange the building blocks to cure disease?
Tempus have built a platform that can analyse data based on a person’s individual molecular data. Its tests compare diseased and normal cells to help physicians determine which treatment would be best.
Last year Tempus partnered with Mayo Clinic to help doctors use data to treat cancer patients. It involved the company completing molecular sequencing and analysis for 1,000 Mayo Clinic patients participating in studies relating to immunotherapy for lung cancer, melanoma, bladder cancer, breast cancer and lymphoma as well as endocrine therapy for advanced breast cancer. The results of the sequencing may help guide future treatment options for patients. That could prevent patients from receiving treatments that might not work, and physicians hope ultimately improve survival rates”. (Source Chicago Tribune 01-04-2017)
Eric Lefkofsky Founder and CEO of Tempus recently announced a collaboration with Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center. The Tempus platform will Lefkofsky sates “unlock critical data, accelerating discovery and ultimately improving patient care”.
Tempus works with physicians and patients to collect appropriate samples for DNA and RNA sequencing. For more information watch this You Tube video.
Review by Dolores Andrew-Gavin, Founder IrishHealthHour