One of the biggest problems with drug prescriptions has to do with the fact that not all patients share the same DNA, which makes healing them a little tricky.

But thanks to IBM's super computer, doctors will soon be able to comb through 3 billion points of genetic data to distinguish which drugs will actually help their patients.

This idea is the brainchild of Coriell Life Sciences, a New Jersey-based for-profit research group that beat out 1,200 other startups during last week’s IBM SmartCamp finals to claim the honor of IBM’s 'Global Entrepreneur of the Year'.

The process involves patients submitting a small sampling of DNA by rubbing the inside of their cheeks with a Q-tip. This gets put into a tube and FedExed to the company's lab for analyzing, tracking, and sharing the data that’s generated.

IBM's super computer will be used for all the DNA mapping and tracking, making the process not only smarter but faster by analyzing up to 1,500 scientific papers in a single month.

[FastCo]