Watson Health Medical Imaging Collaborative Attracts Sixteen
Leading Health Systems, Academic Medical Centers, Radiology
Providers and Imaging Technology Companies
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., June 22, 2016 /CNW/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) today
announced it has formed a Watson Health medical imaging
collaborative, a global initiative comprised of more than fifteen
leading health systems, academic medical centers, ambulatory
radiology providers and imaging technology companies. The
collaborative aims to bring cognitive imaging into daily practice
to help doctors address breast, lung, and other cancers; diabetes;
eye health; brain disease; and heart disease and related
conditions, such as stroke.
Members of the collaborative plan to put Watson to work to extract insights from
previously 'invisible' unstructured imaging data and combine that
with a broad variety of data from other sources. In doing so, the
efforts may help physicians make personalized care decisions
relevant to a specific patient while building a body of knowledge
to benefit broader patient populations. This information may
include data from electronic health records, radiology and
pathology reports, lab results, doctors' progress notes, medical
journals, clinical care guidelines and published outcomes
studies.
Foundational members for the collaborative include Agfa
HealthCare, Anne Arundel Medical Center, Baptist Health South
Florida, Eastern Virginia Medical
School, Hologic, Inc., ifa systems AG, inoveon, Radiology
Associates of South Florida,
Sentara Healthcare, Sheridan Healthcare, Topcon, UC San Diego
Health, University of Miami Health
System, University of Vermont Health
Network and vRad, a MEDNAX (NYSE: MD) company as well as Merge
Healthcare, an IBM company. As the work of the collaborative
evolves Watson's rationale and
insights will evolve, informed by the latest combined wisdom of
these organizations.
Initial plans include training Watson and evaluating potential new offerings
in a variety of patient care environments ranging from stand-alone
ambulatory settings to integrated health delivery networks. The aim
in doing so is to gather data based on diverse real-world
experience and to share findings to inform how the medical
community might reduce operational and financial inefficiencies,
improve physician workflows, and adopt a patient-focused approach
to improving patient care and outcomes. Further, medical experts
could determine how to integrate Watson into the existing health IT systems of
the imaging technology companies in the collaborative. For example,
integrating with electronic health records and PACS (Picture
Archiving and Communication Systems) to deliver cognitive insights
to providers within existing clinical workflows.
"There is strong potential for systems like Watson to help to make radiologists more
productive, diagnoses more accurate, decisions more sound, and
costs more manageable," said Nadim Michel
Daher, a medical imaging and informatics analyst for Frost
& Sullivan. "This is the type of collaborative initiative
needed to produce the real-world evidence and examples to advance
the field of medical imaging and address patient care needs across
large and growing disease states."
Recent studies reveal that inadequate, unnecessary,
uncoordinated, and inefficient care and suboptimal business
processes eat up at least 35%—and maybe over 50%—of the more than
$3 trillion the United States spends annually on
healthcare. That suggests more than $1
trillion is being squandered.1 Watson Health aims
to help healthcare professionals improve care and reduce waste by
enabling enhanced utilization of medical imaging data and providing
cognitive offerings and services that support a doctor's ability to
make tailored medical recommendations personalized to each
patient's unique needs.
"With the ability to draw insights from massive volumes of
integrated structured and unstructured data sources, cognitive
computing could transform how clinicians diagnose, treat and
monitor patients," said Anne Le
Grand, who recently joined IBM as vice president of Imaging
for Watson Health. Ms. Le Grand
brings more than 30 years' experience building global businesses
that operate at the intersection of imaging, informatics,
diagnostics and professional services. "Through IBM's medical
imaging collaborative, Watson may
create opportunities for clinicians to extract greater insights and
value from imaging data while better managing costs."
How Watson's Ability to
Analyze Image Data Could Transform Care
Members of the collaborative are expected to team with Watson
Health cognitive computing experts to train Watson on cardiovascular disease, eye health
and other conditions using data provided by the members of the
collaborative or from population-based disease registries, which
house millions of de-identified cases from around the world. To
help create new solutions powered by Watson, the industry members of the
collaborative could integrate Watson into their workflow systems or image
management software.
For example, members of the collaborative could train
Watson to detect cardiovascular
disease early and identify commonly overlooked heart health
conditions such as congestive heart failure or myocardial
infarction (heart attack). For early disease detection,
Watson could be trained to analyze
and 'score' a coronary angiogram (a video image of a beating heart)
for physician review. This score, commonly known as a SYNTAX score,
is one factor used by physicians to decide to refer a patient with
coronary artery disease to a minimally invasive stent procedure or
a coronary artery bypass graft procedure. In regard to commonly
overlooked heart conditions, Watson could be trained to identify congestive
heart failure early by 'learning' how patients' hearts are likely
to start failing and then monitoring disease progression. Further,
Watson could aid physicians in
discerning chest pain likely to indicate a future heart attack from
chest pain related to a different health condition. Chest pain is a
leading reason people visit a hospital emergency room each year,
yet of the estimated 7 million people with chest pain who make it
to an ER2 as much as 2% may suffer a heart attack at
home after a hospital discharge because signs of imminent heart
attack were missed3.
Eye health is another area of focus for the collaborative.
Members involved in this work may undertake projects to develop an
evidence-based clinical decision support system for
ophthalmologists and optometrists. For example, offerings could
take the form of an online tool for eye clinics and ophthalmic
practices that enables early detection and monitoring of common eye
diseases among high-risk patient populations, such as detecting
diabetic retinopathy among people with pre-diabetes or diabetes and
people with obesity or heart disease.
The Watson Health medical imaging collaborative furthers IBM's
commitment to work in close concert with healthcare professionals
to develop offerings for the medical community. Watson for Oncology and Watson Clinic Trial
Matching are examples of this approach, as are relationships with
the American Cancer Society, American Diabetes Association and
American Heart Association. IBM will open the first Watson Health
European Center of Excellence in Milan near the Human Technopole Italy 2040
research campus, supporting the government of Italy's initiative to establish an
international hub for the advancement of genomics, big data, aging,
and nutrition.
About IBM Watson Health
Watson is the first
commercially available cognitive computing capability representing
a new era in computing. The system, delivered through the cloud,
analyzes high volumes of data, understands complex questions posed
in natural language, and proposes evidence-based answers.
Watson continuously learns,
gaining in value and knowledge over time, from previous
interactions. In April 2015, the
company launched IBM Watson Health and the Watson Health Cloud
platform. The new unit will help improve the ability of doctors,
researchers and insurers to innovate by surfacing insights from the
massive amount of personal health data being created and shared
daily. The Watson Health Cloud will allow this information to be
de-identified, shared and combined with a dynamic and constantly
growing aggregated view of clinical, research and social health
data. For more information on IBM Watson, visit: ibm.com/watson.
For more information on IBM Watson Health, visit:
ibm.com/watsonhealth.
Check out the IBM Watson press kit at:
http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/presskit/27297.wss. Join the
conversation at #ibmwatson and #watsonhealth. Follow Watson on Facebook and see Watson on YouTube and Flickr.
Media Contact
Lorie Fiber
IBM Communications
Phone: 646-318-0575
E-mail: lfiber@us.ibm.com
1 https://hbr.org/2016/07/the-case-for-capitation
(July/August 2016 issue)
2 Ohio State University
Wexner Medical Center. "Many people in emergency department for
chest pain don't need admitted." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily,
18 May 2015.
www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/05/150518121155.htm.
3 Pope J.H., Aufderheide T.P., Ruthazer
R., et al; Missed diagnoses of acute cardiac ischemia in
the emergency department. N Engl J Med.
2000;342:1163-1170.
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