IBM Watson Health ready to disrupt diagnosis and treatment

BOSTON--Bill Evans’ own healthcare experience only served to strengthen his work on IBM Watson Health and its potential benefits to all patients.

Speaking at Bio-IT World Congress, the chief marketing officer for IBM Watson Health said he got sick several years ago, experiencing fainting spells heart palpitations and trouble sleeping. He had esophageal spasms which mimic a heart attack. He underwent every possible cardiac exam but no one could tell him what was wrong.

Evans was put on seven different medications over seven months. He saw 15 different doctors. Finally, a friend recovering from bladder cancer recommended that Evans see his doctor. That physician diagnosed him with irritable bowel syndrome within a couple minutes. Evans began taking a low dose of antianxiety medication and said he has never felt better.

This experience was a small data problem, he said. “I had plenty of analytics but no wisdom. That’s what’s wrong with the patient experience, which is marginalized and iffy.”

But, as someone working for a large life sciences company, he had a vested interest—as did his colleagues—in fixing the centricity problem.

IBM is the company that built the infrastructure that allows people to deposit a check at any bank and have the accurate amount available in their account, he explained. “Now we want to do that for healthcare and put Watson on top of the infrastructure.” Evans said he is excited about Watson because it’s not a standalone product—it’s “built on the legacy of IBM technology.”

Inviting the audience to join his company’s efforts, Evans said the name of the game right now is reducing cost and adding value. "Do you know what’s driving your costs? Do you know what’s driving your readmission rate? Maybe you do but half of all diagnoses are not evidence-based. It’s not a data problem, it’s a wisdom problem.”

All data input into the system is valuable even if it’s not relevant to an individual’s problem because “the more data input, the more correlations and connections it makes and it’s constantly re-evaluating its recommendation profiles.”