Matthew Herper – Forbes
On a typically perfect summer day in Los Angeles, Patrick Soon-Shiong, the richest doctor in the history of the world, is bunkered inside his clandestine headquarters (nestled behind a security gate so unobtrusive that Uber cars consistently miss it), ready to show around a kindred spirit. T. Denny Sanford, who made a $2.8 billion fortune selling high-interest-rate MasterCards to people with bad credit scores, is now in philanthropy mode, giving away most of his fortune to children’s charities and hospitals. And he’s come to see what’s been touted as the future of medicine.
Soon-Shiong, 62, has a lot to show. First, he walks him through a mock-up of a futuristic hospital room: There’s a patch that measures a patient’s heart rate, temperature and blood pressure, and a 3-inch white cube, called an HBox, connecting every device to a computer network. He shows off a darkened room covered in computer screens: a control center from which a handful of doctors can monitor hundreds of patients, even when those patients are at home. And finally he calls up several computer programs that make sure doctors know, up to the latest scientific-journal article, the best treatment available. It’s a sweeping assemblage of data-driven toys–fueled by $1.3 billion worth of furtive acquisitions, almost entirely using Soon-Shiong’s own money.
This dizzying demonstration wows Sanford, who seems extra-rumpled next to Soon-Shiong, in his crisp tailored blue shirt and suit pants, which he fills sleekly (he owns part of the Lakers and plays hoops regularly on an indoor court at his house). “I think it’s exactly what we need in this world,” Sanford says. “I also have a hospital group. I think we’re at 40 hospitals and 150 clinics, but costs are just going crazy, and the lack of communication between these organizations is just paramount to correct.” Soon-Shiong jumps in for the close: “The hospitals aren’t organized, funded or even have the skill sets to create this kind of communications infrastructure. Frankly, the government should have done it.”
