Another week, another new initiative for IBM Watson Health.
Wednesday, IBM announced the formation of a Watson Health medical imaging collaborative, seeking to make “cognitive imaging” a routine part of medical practice in oncology, neurology, diabetes care, eye care, cardiovascular disease and other image-heavy specialties. “Imaging is one of the things that spans across many different areas,” said Anne Le Grand, IBM Watson Health’s vice president of imaging.
“The real aim is to bring cognitive imaging into clinical practice,” Le Grand said. “Imaging is vast and costly,” and so much value remains inaccessible, she added.
The collaborative initially includes 16 integrated delivery networks, academic health systems, radiology service providers and imaging technology vendors, as well as Merge Healthcare. IBM spent $1 billion to buy Merge in August 2015, giving Watson the ability to “see” medical images.
According to Le Grand, IBM has been working on “deep learning” and augmented intelligence for more than 11 years. “Merge brought in a big database and a very strong PACS business,” she said, but Merge research was not cognitive.
Watson will help the participants glean insights from what IBM said is previously “invisible,” unstructured imaging data. It also will compile and crunch information from electronic health records, laboratory results, radiology and pathology reports, medical journals and clinical care guidelines, according to Big Blue.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
“The partners will use the learnings [from applying Watson technology] for both research and clinical practice,” Le Grand said. “It can help in terms of population health,” as well as for improving diagnostic accuracy.
The initial partners include: Agfa HealthCare; Anne Arundel Medical Center, Annapolis, Maryland; Miami-based Baptist Health South Florida; Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk; Hologic, Inc., ophthalmology health IT company IFA Systems and its Inoveon subsidiary; Radiology Associates of South Florida; Sentara Healthcare in Norfolk, Virginia; physician management group Sheridan Healthcare; optical equipment-maker Topcon; UC San Diego Health; University of Miami Health System; University of Vermont Health Network; and teleradiology provider vRad.
Le Grand said to expect others with specific expertise or data sets to join the collaborative. “This is just the first phase,” she said. “This is going to be an ongoing effort and will result in real commercial solutions in the marketplace.”
Photo: IBM
