IBM will re-enter the electronic health records business and also give supercomputer Watson the ability to “see” medical images, thanks to a planned $1 billion acquisition of Merge Healthcare.
“With this acquisition, we’re adding expertise in managing and sharing medical images. Now, we’ll integrate Watson’s ability to ‘see’ with a vast portfolio of health image data,” Mike Rhodin, senior vice president of IBM’s Watson Group, said in a company video released Thursday.
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Merge specializes in medical imaging information systems for healthcare providers, clinical research operations and pharmaceutical companies. The Chicago-based vendor also offers EHR and practice management systems for orthopedics, OB/GYN and eye care.
While this will mark IBM’s return as an EHR vendor for the first time in nearly a decade and a half, the tech heavyweight is most excited about the possibilities on the imaging side.
As Watson evolves, we are tackling more complex and meaningful problems by constantly evaluating bigger and more challenging data sets,” John Kelly, senior vice president of IBM’s research portfolio, said in a press release.
“Medical images are some of the most complicated data sets imaginable, and there is perhaps no more important area in which researchers can apply machine learning and cognitive computing. That’s the real promise of cognitive computing and its artificial intelligence components – helping to make us healthier and to improve the quality of our lives,” Kelly added.
The proposed acquisition of Merge follows Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM’s purchase in April of population health management company Phytel and cloud-based healthcare intelligence vendor Explorys. Those two deals framed the introduction of Watson Health at HIMSS15.
Photo: IBM
