IBM's supercomputer system, best known for trouncing the world's best Jeopardy! players on TV, is being tapped by one of the nation's largest health insurers to help diagnose medical problems and authorise treatments.
WellPoint Inc., which has 34.2 million members, will integrate Watson's lightning speed and deep healthcare database into its existing patient information, helping it choose among treatment options and medicines. “This very much fits into the sweet spot of what we envisioned for the applications of Watson,” said Manoj Saxena, general manager of an IBM division looking at how the computer can be marketed.
The WellPoint application will combine data from three sources — a patient's chart and electronic records that a doctor or hospital has, the insurance company's history of medicines and treatments, and Watson's huge library of textbooks and medical journals. IBM says the computer can then sift through it all and answer a question in moments, providing several possible diagnoses or treatments, ranked in order of the computer's confidence, along with the basis for its answer.
Mr. Saxena said the WellPoint application would likely be accessed from an ordinary computer or handheld device. A pilot programme will be rolled out early next year at several cancer centres, academic medical centres and oncology practices. — AP
