HealthManagement, Volume 7 - Issue 2, 2012 HIT

Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center  (MSKCC) and IBM have agreed to  collaborate on the development of a  powerful tool built upon IBM Watson in  order to provide medical professionals  with improved access to current and  comprehensive cancer data and practices.  The resulting decision support  tool will help doctors everywhere create  individualised cancer diagnostic and  treatment recommendations for their  patients based on current evidence.  

The initiative will combine the computational  power of IBM Watson and its  natural language processing ability with  MSKCC’s clinical knowledge, existing  molecular and genomic data and vast  repository of cancer case histories, in order  to create an outcome and evidencebased  decision support system. The goal  is to give oncologists located anywhere  the ability to obtain detailed diagnosis  and treatment options based on updated  research that will help them decide how  best to care for an individual patient.  

The IBM Watson system gained  fame by beating human contestants  on the television quiz show Jeopardy!  It can interpret queries in natural language  and uses statistical analysis, advanced  analytics and a powerful array of  processors to search millions of pages  in seconds and deliver evidence-based  statistically-ranked responses.  

MSKCC’s world-renowned oncologists  will assist in developing IBM Watson to  use a patient’s medical information and  synthesize a vast array of continuously Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center  (MSKCC) and IBM have agreed to  collaborate on the development of a  powerful tool built upon IBM Watson in  order to provide medical professionals  with improved access to current and  comprehensive cancer data and practices.  The resulting decision support  tool will help doctors everywhere create  individualised cancer diagnostic and  treatment recommendations for their  patients based on current evidence.  The initiative will combine the computational  power of IBM Watson and its  natural language processing ability with  MSKCC’s clinical knowledge, existing  molecular and genomic data and vast  repository of cancer case histories, in order  to create an outcome and evidencebased  decision support system. The goal  is to give oncologists located anywhere  the ability to obtain detailed diagnosis  and treatment options based on updated  research that will help them decide how  best to care for an individual patient.  The IBM Watson system gained  fame by beating human contestants  on the television quiz show Jeopardy!  It can interpret queries in natural language  and uses statistical analysis, advanced  analytics and a powerful array of  processors to search millions of pages  in seconds and deliver evidence-based  statistically-ranked responses.  MSKCC’s world-renowned oncologists  will assist in developing IBM Watson to  use a patient’s medical information and  synthesize a vast array of continuously  updated and vetted treatment guidelines,  published research and insights gleaned  from the deep experience of MSKCC  clinicians to provide an individualised recommendation  to physicians. The tool will  also provide users with a detailed record  of the data and evidence used to reach  the recommendations.  

The need for such an advanced technology  arises from the steadily increasing  complexity of oncology treatment. Cancer  is not one disease but some hundreds of  sub-types, each with a different genetic  fingerprint. Significant discoveries in molecular  biology and genetics in the past  two decades have delivered new insights  into cancer biology and strategies for targeting  specific molecular alterations in  tumours, but these advances have also  ratcheted up the complexity of diagnosing  and treating each case. Oncologists and  physicians who do not specialise in specific  sub-types of cancer face a significant  challenge in keeping up with the magnitude  of rapidly changing information.  

“This comprehensive, evidence-based  approach will profoundly enhance cancer  care by accelerating the dissemination of  practice-changing research at an unprecedented  pace,” said Dr. Mark G. Kris, Chief,  Thoracic Oncology Service at MSKCC and  one of the clinicians leading the development  effort. He noted that 85 percent of  patients with cancer are not treated at  specialised medical centres and it can  take years for the latest developments in  oncology to reach all practice settings.  

Development work is already underway  for the first applications, which include  lung, breast and prostate cancers. The objective  is to begin piloting the solutions to  a select group of oncologists in late 2012,  with wider distribution planned for late  2013. This collaboration complements an  earlier announcement by IBM and Well-  Point that the parties will focus on putting  Watson to work on oncology solutions.  

For more information, please visit:  www.ibm.com

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