TMA Precision Health (TMA) aims to find needles in a haystack…
Only the “haystack” is the U.S. healthcare system. And the “needles” are patients — particularly children — battling rare or genetic diseases.
TMA is an example of precision health, a sector that’s experienced notable mergers & acquisitions (M&A) activity in recent years. Companies like Prometheus Biosciences (acquired by Merck for $10.8 billion), Tempus AI (went public in 2024), and Livongo Health (merged with Teladoc in 2020 for $18.5 billion) all achieved notable exits. And TMA could be next.
Each year, families begin a painful, costly journey through a fragmented healthcare system — a maze of specialist referrals, ineffective treatments, and repeated dead ends. For those facing rare diseases, this journey often lasts years and can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.
Health plans have incentive to find and help these patients, but the data shows they can’t rely on existing hospitals to do that effectively. As an example, Stanford Children’s Hospital treats kids with rare and genetic diseases, but sees less than one percent of patients covered by Blue Shield California. That leaves hundreds of thousands of high-need members scattered across a fragmented system.
TMA uses technology to find these patients early and deliver treatment insights at speed and at scale. Here’s how it works:
Health plans use TMA’s AI-enabled solution to proactively identify these high-cost, hidden patients hiding in their own claims data, and pay this startup to enable precision-medicine solutions so their members get the best care possible.
With TMA’s AI-powered tech, what normally takes more than seven years to accomplish can be done in twelve weeks. This means families get to make informed care decisions faster and save thousands of dollars in unnecessary costs.
TMA is led by alumni of Harvard and Tufts, leaders in genomics, and backed by decades of experience in startups. This enables the company to combine clinical depth with a track record of building and scaling high-impact solutions.
TMA’s initial focus is on pediatric epilepsy. This afflicts nearly half a million patients in the U.S. and carries annual costs of more than $40,000. It’s the second-most misdiagnosed rare disease.
In Medellin, Colombia, TMA’s platform identified a nine-year-old suffering from uncontrolled seizures and frequent trips to the emergency room. She had spent years cycling through anti-epileptic drugs with no clear answers.
TMA’s analysis revealed a biotinidase deficiency — a condition that requires a genetic confirmation for treatment. Within weeks, her doctors were able to make the right diagnosis, her treatment plan changed, her health plan captured almost $20,000 in direct annual savings, and the risk of long-term complications was avoided.
TMA was selected for NVIDIA’s Inception Program and the Creative Destruction Lab’s 2024 Computational Health cohort. The company is in discussions with sixteen U.S. health plans covering eight-and-a-half million lives. And it projects to bring in $2.3 million in revenue this year.
TMA offers a flat-fee model: $10,000 per completed case (customers are only billed when results are delivered). To scale, the company has a three-phase plan:
Phase 1 focuses on increased automation, with the goal of serving 1,000 patients per month. Phase 2 involves becoming the go-to data source for complex disease care, while Phase 3 involves providing tailored care for complex disease populations.