IBM Announces Watson Cancer Research at 14 Health Organizations
On Tuesday, IBM announced it is partnering with 14 health systems and cancer centers to use its Watson supercomputer platform for cancer research efforts, Modern Healthcare reports.
Details of Project
According to Modern Healthcare, researchers will use Watson to sort through individuals' genetic data and pair them with medical literature to find the most suitable treatments. Watson is expected to help the researchers better decide on personalized treatment plans that target specific cancer-causing gene mutations, which could lead to improved patient outcomes (Rubenfire, Modern Healthcare, 5/5).
Specifically, users will be able to upload patient data into the system, where it will be analyzed to find the genes responsible for the cancer (Costa, U.S. News & World Report, 5/5). The process would take weeks for physicians to complete manually, but will take minutes using the Watson system, according to Modern Healthcare (Modern Healthcare, 5/5).
The partnering cancer centers and health systems are expected to begin using Watson by late 2015 (Begley, Reuters, 5/5). Among the participants are:
- City of Hope National Medical Center in Monrovia; and
- The University of Southern California Center for Applied Molecular Medicine in Los Angeles (Modern Healthcare, 5/5).
The facilities will pay an undisclosed fee to use the technology (Reuters, 5/5).
IBM said it expects more cancer centers to join the project later this year (Modern Healthcare, 5/5).
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