WellPoint, Inc. and IBM announced that they are working together on the first commercial applications of the IBM
Watson technology. WellPoint will develop and
launch Watson-based solutions to help improve patient care through the
delivery of up-to-date, evidence-based health care for millions of
Americans. IBM will develop the base Watson healthcare technology on
which WellPoint's solution will run.
Watson is a computing
system built by a team of IBM scientists who set out to accomplish a
grand challenge - build a computing system that rivals a human's ability
to answer questions posed in natural language with speed, accuracy and
confidence. Earlier this year, Watson competed and won against two of
the most celebrated players ever to appear on Jeopardy! Watson's ability to analyze the meaning and context of human
language, and quickly process vast amounts of information to suggest
options targeted to a patient's circumstances, can assist decision
makers, such as physicians and nurses, in identifying the most likely
diagnosis and treatment options for their patients.
In recent years, few areas have advanced as rapidly as health care.
For physicians, incorporating hundreds of thousands of articles into
practice and applying them to patient care is a significant challenge.
Watson can sift through an equivalent of about 1 million books or
roughly 200 million pages of data, and analyze this information and
provide precise responses in less than three seconds. Using this
extraordinary capability WellPoint is expected to enable Watson to allow
physicians to easily coordinate medical data programmed into Watson
with specified patient factors, to help identify the most likely
diagnosis and treatment options in complex cases. Watson is expected to
serve as a powerful tool in the physician's decision making process.
"There are breathtaking advances in medical science and clinical
knowledge, however; this clinical information is not always used in the
care of patients. Imagine having the ability to take in all the
information around a patient's medical care -- symptoms, findings,
patient interviews and diagnostic studies. Then, imagine using Watson
analytic capabilities to consider all of the prior cases, the
state-of-the-art clinical knowledge in the medical literature and
clinical best practices to help a physician advance a diagnosis and
guide a course of treatment," said Sam Nussbaum, M.D., WellPoint's Chief
Medical Officer. "We believe this will be an invaluable resource for
our partnering physicians and will dramatically enhance the quality and
effectiveness of medical care they deliver to our members."
Watson may help physicians identify treatment options that balance
the interactions of various drugs and narrow among a large group of
treatment choices, enabling physicians to quickly select the more
effective treatment plans for their patients. It is also expected to
streamline communication between a patient's physician and their health
plan, helping to improve efficiency in clinical review of complex cases.
It could even be used to direct patients to the physician in their area
with the best success in treating a particular illness.
"With medical information doubling every five years and health care
costs increasing, Watson has tremendous potential for applications that
improve the efficiency of care and reduce wait times for diagnosis and
treatment by enabling clinicians with access to the best clinical data
the moment they need it," said Manoj Saxena, general manager, Watson
Solutions, IBM Software Group. "WellPoint's commitment to innovation and
their work to improve how care is delivered and benefits administered
make them an ideal partner for IBM's software and services to pioneer
new efficiencies in health care."
Depending on the progress of the development efforts, WellPoint
anticipates employing Watson technology in early 2012, working with
select physician groups in clinical pilots.
"The implications for health care are extraordinary," said Lori Beer,
WellPoint's executive vice president of Enterprise Business Services.
"As one of the nation's largest health insurers, we have an important
role to play in helping to improve health care quality. We believe new
solutions built on the IBM Watson technology will be valuable for our
provider partners, and more importantly, give us new tools to help
ensure our members are receiving the best possible care."
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