Watson Health Medical Imaging Collaborative Attracts Sixteen
Leading Health Systems, Academic Medical Centers, Radiology
Providers and Imaging Technology Companies
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., June 22, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- 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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