IBM Watson meets oncology

Donna Cusano

More on the ultimate ‘big data’ cruncher, IBM Watson, from IBM’s Rob High at the DataWeek 2012 conference. Instead of the broad but relatively shallow scope of Watson answering questions on the Jeopardy TV program, the focus is narrow and deep on one area of oncology–breast cancer. The intention is to use Watson’s computing power to assist clinical decision making, thus increasing the quality of care and decreasing misdiagnoses, which also affect how well treatment works. The sheer volume of records also affect diagnosis–15 page electronic health records, family and patient histories, medications and test results. Next up: blood and lung cancers. IBM’s Watson being put to the test in healthcare (ZDNet)