Researchers are working to turn IBM's Watson computer system into a medical tool that could receive information about a patient's symptoms and medical history and then generate suggested diagnoses and treatments, the AP/Google News reports.
Watson is best known for its successful run on the television trivia show Jeopardy! earlier this year.
Preparing the System
To prepare Watson for use as a medical resource, researchers are inputting data from medical textbooks and journals. Medical students also are helping to train Watson by giving it sample questions.
In the future, Watson could use information from electronic health records to bolster its health data repository.
Herbert Chase -- a Columbia University Medical School professor who is helping prepare Watson for medical applications -- said the system also might incorporate anecdotal information from sources such as personal blogs on medical websites.
How It Would Work
A medical Watson system would accept information about a set of symptoms and provide several possible diagnoses, ranked by order of confidence. The system also could receive information about a patient's medical history and suggest treatment options.
Dan Pelino, general manager for global health care at IBM, said the Watson system eventually could:
- Allow doctors to connect to its database by speaking into a hand-held device;
- Provide physicians with a second opinion on medical issues; and
- Serve as a comprehensive library on research in cancer and other fields.
Expected Release, Price
IBM officials say the company is about two years away from marketing a medical Watson. The company has yet to establish a price for the system.
Michael Yuan, chief scientist at consulting firm Ringful Health, said, "You have to wonder if a hospital is going to plunk down a couple of million dollars" for a Watson system.
According to Pelino, health care providers would be able to purchase components of Watson instead of buying the whole system (AP/Google News, 5/22).