How he does all that he does is a mystery for the ages. Patrick Soon-Shiong, 65, the billionaire who’s built a medical empire, and, as of this month, is the owner and publisher of the Los Angeles Times.
His history of compassion for the human race is a story that will be told for ages. It has been generously written about and discussed these past weeks.
He’s anointed Norman Pearlstine, 75, as the newspaper’s executive editor (a veteran journalist editing The Wall Street Journal, Time, etc).
Norman informs the newspaper will now focus on sports, technology, the environment, and food.
Let us look into Patrick’s life, who grew up as the fifth of eight children above his father’s grocery store in Port Elizabeth, South Africa.
He recalls delivering newspapers as a youngster and liking the smell of printer’s ink.
His vast knowledge, then and now, remains exemplary.
We’ve selected revealing quotes as insights into his wisdom, expertise, character and interests.
And his concern for today’s healthcare.
• “I think of L.A. as truly the melting pot. It’s basically a mini-country unto itself.”
• “There is no right or wrong way of giving. People in Los Angeles have made major contributions in different ways to the city: Eli Broad to art. David Geffen to hospitals. I’m not judgmental.”
• “It’s unconscionable that cancer patients get the wrong diagnosis 30 percent of the time and that it takes so long to treat them with appropriate drugs for their cancer.”
• “My commitment is to Los Angeles, so whatever helps this continue to be a great city, that’s what I am focused to do, and the Dodgers are certainly iconic to our community.”
• “We’re really going after truly creating sustainability of a disease-free state, establishing a complete system for managing cancer patients for life, so that you can manage from onset of the disease all the way through.”
• “You don’t inherit cancer; you actually get it.”
• “I’m passionate about basketball. I’m not as passionate about baseball as I am about basketball, but I watch baseball, and I watch football. I love sports in general.”
• “Baseball is like cricket, and I grew up in a country where they played cricket. So I understand cricket, soccer and basketball. I played basketball at the club level and a little bit in college, so that’s why I’m a basketball fanatic.”
• “I love doing a lot of things I’m told I can’t do. I think that’s what drives me and keeps me awake every day.”
• “You have in the U.S. around two million new diagnoses of cancer a year, and 13 million survivors, so you have about 10,000 patients that require analysis every day. That’s about five petabytes that need to be transmitted and computed on a daily basis.”
• “Every patient is a consumer, and every consumer is a potential patient. What NantWorks is doing is building the world the way Da Vinci saw it, and augmenting every frame a human being sees as they work, live and play.”
• “I am convinced that in order for you, as a patient, to be protected, it has to be transparent, evidence-based, objective information. Not self-serving information. Not pharma-driven information. Not ad-driven information.”
• “We know that if you just were to take the drugs that you were supposed to take for diabetes or hypertension, just take them, as opposed to not … we could save thousands per patient per year.”
• “Fake news is the cancer of our times, and social media the vehicles for metastasis. Institutions like The Times and the San Diego Union-Tribune are more vital than ever. They must be bastions of editorial integrity and independence, if they are to protect our democracy and provide an antidote to disinformation.”