Here’s another practical application of IBM Watson technology in healthcare: Boston Children’s Hospital is going to tap the supercomputing platform to improve diagnosis and treatment of rare diseases.
Researchers at the Harvard-affiliated hospital’s Manton Center for Orphan Disease Research will train Watson in nephrology by reading medical literature and scanning data on mutations for a kidney disease known as steroid-resistant nephrotic syndrome. They will then give Watson retrospective genomic data from patients in an effort to teach the computer to assist physicians in interpreting genome sequences as they look for abnormalities.
Watson also will assist practitioners in finding effective treatments, often a difficult chore when dealing with rare, poorly understood diseases, IBM and Boston Children’s announced Wednesday at the hospital’s Global Pediatric Innovation Summit + Awards.
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“Watson can help us ensure we’ve left no stone unturned in our search to diagnose and cure these rare diseases so we can uncover all relevant insights from the patient’s clinical history, DNA data, supporting evidence and population health data,” Dr. Christopher Walsh, director of genetics and genomics at Boston Children’s, said in an IBM press release.
“One of Watson’s talents is quickly finding hidden insights and connecting patterns in massive volumes of data,” said Deborah DiSanzo, general manager of IBM Watson Health.
“Rare disease diagnosis is a fitting application for cognitive technology that can assimilate different types and sources of data to help doctors solve medical mysteries. For the kids and their families suffering without a diagnosis, our goal is to team with the world’s leading experts to create a cognitive tool that will make it easier for doctors to find the needle in the haystack, uncovering all relevant medical advances to support effective care for the child,” DiSanzo continued.
If the SRNS project is successful, the Manton Center intends to apply Watson technology to undiagnosed neurological conditions.
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