Dr. Watson, I Presume...

Back in April, IBM announced the launch of the Watson Health Cloud, a platform that is designed to improve collaboration and innovation in the medical community by aggregating the immense amounts of clinical, research, and social health data being generated every day. The initiative leverages Watson’s cognitive and analytic capabilities to provide powerful new insights into health and healthcare. As a next step, IBM plans to acquire technology that will expand Watson’s capabilities to include not only data, but medical images as well.

Imaging is the fastest-growing data source in the healthcare industry today – accounting for an estimated 90 percent of medical data. Some emergency rooms generate as many as 100,000 images every day, yet most of the analysis is still done manually. Machine learning and cognitive computing will enable Watson to filter this information, assist clinicians with identifying anomalies, and then recommend a course of action. In effect, the new acquisition is aimed at expanding Watson’s capabilities beyond natural language recognition by giving it the ability to “see.”

The added capabilities have tremendous benefits for clinicians and patients alike by reducing physician loads and increasing quality, efficiency and effectiveness. A patient’s current images could quickly be compared to historical data as well as information from personal wearable devices to generate a personalized treatment and monitoring program. In addition, having a centralized storehouse of information will provide access to a broader array of information related to diagnostic criteria, therapeutic options, care guidelines and global trends.