IBM’s Watson used its ability to process 200 million pages of data in three seconds to win a game of Jeopardy earlier this year against its human opponents. The TV appearance may well be responsible for giving Watson a new job.
Health insurance firm WellPoint has approached IBM to use the technology inherent in Watson to help doctors with diagnosis and treatment of medical conditions. This is the first time that the software in Watson is being developed for a commercial application.
Sam Nussbaum, the Chief Medical Officer of WellPoint said that there were breathtaking advances in medical science and clinical knowledge, however; this clinical information was not always used in the care of patients.
This may change as Watson could be programmed with all the latest information available in medical journals and will prove invaluable to doctors. The first task for Watson is to work with nurses who are handling complicated patient cases. Then it will practice in oncology cases, where doctors can use their own computers and tablets to access the technology.
There may come a period in the future when the patients can get help directly from Watson using an application. The terms of the deal with IBM were not disclosed but WellPoint will pay some up front and some over time as per an IBM executive.
Rod Smith, vice president of emerging technology at IBM said that the user experience is going to be very important, but how it fits into WellPoint's operations will be critical. He added that the medical field is probably the most prolific as far as the amount of information that's published every year.