WellPoint, IBM team to apply Watson tech to healthcare

Jeff Byers | | Health Exec | Precision Medicine
WellPoint and IBM have partnered to create the first commercial applications of the IBM Watson technology. Under the agreement, health benefits company WellPoint will develop and launch Watson-based tools to help improve patient care through the delivery of evidence-based healthcare.

IBM, of Armonk, N.Y., will develop the base Watson healthcare technology on which WellPoint's tool will run.

Watson is a computing system built by IBM scientists who set out to build a computing system that rivals a human's ability to answer questions posed in natural language. Using Watson’s capabilities, WellPoint said it expects to enable Watson to allow physicians to coordinate medical data programmed into Watson with specified patient factors, to help identify the most likely diagnosis and treatment options in complex cases.

Depending on the progress of the development efforts, WellPoint anticipates employing Watson technology in early 2012, working with select physician groups in clinical pilots, the Indianapolis-based company stated.

Jeff Byers

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