For many medical tests, time is an inherent part of the
equation. In most cases, medical results
are delayed by compute time. A good
example of this is genetic testing.
Research finds that a patient’s genetics are an important factor in the
efficacy of treatment. Two examples
announced recently illustrate this.
Plavix, the second biggest selling drug after cholesterol-lowering
Lipitor, is intended to prevent blood clots that can cause heart attacks and
strokes in patients with advanced cardiovascular disease. It's also commonly
prescribed to patients treated with devices called stents to prop open diseased
coronary arteries. Some 2.5 million to 3 million Plavix prescriptions are
written in the U.S. every month. But a genetic variation in a significant
minority of patients can prevent the drug from working, or can limit its
effectiveness, increasing a patient's risk for a potentially life-threatening
heart attack. Unfortunately a patient typically
waits at least two days, and often longer, for the genetic results to come back
to determine if Plavix is right for them.
An even more widely used example is determining which of two popular dieting regimes will be more effective. Many dieters choose a low-fat approach; others choose a low-carb diet. What if individuals could easily test for their genetic makeup to determine the best diet for themselves to obtain fast weight loss? Presently, testing for this is time-consuming and expensive.
But what if patients could see results in minutes instead of waiting weeks on all types of medical testing? Leveraging all the available power of today's multicore hardware at the same time can result in dramatically faster speed. Pervasive's DataRush platform attacks analytical applications with fully parallel processing and result in significantly shorter wait times.
Faster results equals better health, deeper understanding, and improved outcomes. Why wait?