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Business News/ Opinion / Online-views/  The new era of cognitive healthcare
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The new era of cognitive healthcare

The future of healthcare is all about the individual

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In a recent study published by International Business Machines Corp. (IBM), we found that top executives across the globe believe cognitive computing will play a disruptive role in transforming the world. Cognitive systems learn, rather than being programmed, using natural language processing, machine learning and advanced analytics to reveal insights from large amounts of structured and unstructured data.

IBM Watson is pioneering this new era of computing that we call the era of cognitive business. Watson can sift through vast volumes of disparate data sources and types at remarkable speeds and provide comprehensive insights and value over time to professionals working across every industry.

One of the most important contributions Watson is making is in deriving new, valuable insights in the healthcare industry. For the past four years, IBM has been teaming with some of the world’s leading healthcare institutions to advance Watson’s ability to understand the science of medicine and draw connections in massive amounts of medical information.

It’s no secret that the Indian healthcare system faces fundamental challenges with a rising population and a limited number of medical practitioners to cater to the increasing healthcare requirements. India has just one doctor for every 1,600 people, placing a huge burden on every medical practitioner.

Our country’s healthcare system is in need of solutions and resources that equip doctors to make quick and effective decisions, enabling better quality patient care.

Over the next two years, healthcare data will grow 99%, and 88% of this will be unstructured data. Information from journal articles, new medical protocols, new legislation, new practices, and entire new fields are growing at a rate faster than any professional can take in. Each person will generate one million gigabytes of health-related data in his or her lifetime—the equivalent of about 300 million books.

The ministry of health and family welfare recently released a consultation document on a new national health policy. In line with the government’s digital agenda, it advocates the use of information and communications technologies (ICT) to improve the healthcare system in the country.

Watson for Oncology, which IBM developed together with experts from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, helps oncologists analyse data to identify evidence-based treatment options. Today, doctors are able to access Watson’s cloud-based platform wherever and whenever they need to on a computer desktop or mobile tablet, and the system can reduce the time it takes them to quickly sift through vast volumes of data and provide potential evidence-based treatment options for the patient.

IBM Watson holds the promise to make doctor’s cancer care delivery more accessible and efficient. Cognitive computing could help medical practitioners uncover patterns, insights and actionable hypotheses that would be virtually impossible to discover using traditional research or programmable systems alone.

Researchers from Baylor College of Medicine tested Watson’s ability to help analyse 70,000 scientific articles published over the past three decades. By mining that information, Watson quickly and accurately targeted seven proteins that modify p53—an important cancer protein. This level of discovery had typically taken the entire life sciences industry seven years to accomplish without the help of Watson.

IBM’s Watson is emerging as an essential tool for doctors. No longer can a doctor alone keep up with the proliferation of knowledge and data available that could impact a patient’s care. But because Watson can quickly process information and read natural language, and because it evaluates cases with evolving machine-learned models, identifying patterns and providing supporting evidence, Watson is a technology that can enable clinicians to uncover the insights hidden in the data in their effort to improve quality care for patients.

India has begun a much-needed healthcare system transformation. The government has formulated a long-term vision to achieve universal health coverage. Applying Watson to different healthcare applications in addition to oncology has the potential to play a role in bridging the demand-supply gap. The future of healthcare is all about the individual, and Watson can help doctors put the patient at the centre of their care. The growing ecosystem of Watson partners will transform the healthcare profession.

The author is managing director, IBM India

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Published: 18 Dec 2015, 12:55 AM IST
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