The healthcare industry is experiencing an explosion of data points from various sources and there is a need to organize, access and analyze all forms of structured and unstructured data. Cognitive Computing enables a new class of data interpretation and learning systems that can generate actionable insights and improve healthcare outcomes for patients.
This Q&A is part of a series of interviews following the release of the IBM Institute for Business Value (IBV) paper: “A booster shot for health and wellness: Your cognitive future in the healthcare industry”. As the healthcare industry evaluates how cognitive computing can be utilised to its advantage, Mark Effingham (Industry Architect for UK&I Healthcare, IBM) explains what this means for IBM’s clients.
Q. What is the general industry feel towards Cognitive computing within the Healthcare industry, and amongst IBM Healthcare clients?
A. There is a lot of excitement and interest in what IBM has termed as this new era of computing, with multiple dialogue points already underway. Cognitive Computing is in the ‘engage’ and ‘discover’ phases and IBM is being approached by organisations who want to understand how cognitive computing can bring insight to their businesses. There is a broad range of clients at both a national and regional level who are working to identify and then progress cognitive computing use cases for Healthcare.
Q. Are the IBM Healthcare clients in a position to / enthusiastic to embrace Cognitive Computing?
A. Healthcare is an industry heavily reliant on ‘people’ and where technology exploitation has perhaps lagged other industries. It means there is a broad spectrum of maturity out there, with some hospitals still largely paper-based whilst others are much further ahead on their digital journey. Before the benefits of Cognitive Computing can be fully realised, there needs to be the technological foundation in place on which to build these new cognitive solutions. There is a level of investment and system complexity that needs to be addressed before digitalisation can be implemented successfully and for many hospitals this remains a constantly moving target.
Q. Cognitive computing is often described as being able to outperform humans in many areas – how does this make IBM’s Healthcare clients feel?
A. Many clinicians we talk with are excited by the capabilities and opportunities presented by these learning machines, and are often surprised by the level of sophistication that can be achieved. We need to be clear that cognitive computing solutions are currently designed to be decision support aids that put much greater information and insights at the fingertips of clinicians rather than supplement human resource. This may change over time when there is a better and more in depth understanding of how cognitive computing can be utilised effectively, but we are not there today.
Q. Are healthcare organizations prepared for the change to Cognitive healthcare?
A. To an extent there is still a huge amount to be done within the Healthcare industry in relation to Cognitive Computing. IBM are currently in talks with clients about early use cases across all potential areas from natural language processing through to hypothesis generation. The aim is to understand how health systems can use unstructured data in a value driven way. For instance, Watson has primarily been US focused and this technology now needs to be driven across Europe with additional functionality such as non-English language, to fully realise the benefits. As with any emerging technology, there is a lot of hype around Cognitive Computing and we are still at the start of the journey of understanding how its capabilities can be fully used across healthcare.
Q. What is IBM doing to engage Healthcare clients and the industry in regards to Cognitive Computing?
A. IBM is being approached by Healthcare organisations who want to understand more fully what cognitive computing is and how it can help them improve healthcare delivery in new ways. At IBM, we are trying to take the journey with these organisations together to understand the use of technology in the Healthcare environment. It is still early days as perception of risks and repeatability is changing, but it is expected that in 3-5 years the path to Cognitive Computing will be better realised.
Q. What are the main challenges faced by IBM’s clients in implementing Cognitive Computing systems?
A. There is a large level of investment needed to build the technological foundation on which Cognitive Computing can grow. Access to different types of data sets and expertise is needed to leverage Cognitive Computing as an emerging solution. The path forwards needs to be structured so that use cases determine how problems can be solved prior to the business cases being constructed.
There is also a significant focus within the Healthcare industry on cost reduction and how new technologies can play a role in lowering costs to meet growing financial pressures whilst maintaining or improving quality of care. It is inspiring to see the great efforts and progress made by NHS England and the National Information Board who are looking at how data and technology can better be used, such as to better engage patients to make more informed decisions. Cognitive computing can be a game changer in this area.
Q. The paper highlights a ‘gap between data quantity and data insights’ – Do you have any clients where they had ‘too much data and too little insight’?
A. We certainly see this. For example, it is not uncommon within Trusts for information to be locked within discrete systems and not being fully utilised. This is only going to get more challenging with the increase in volumes and new types of data, such as imaging and genomics. Most hospitals can improve their insights by integrating data sources to get a 3600 view of the patient in the first instance, and many are starting or are already doing this. With the technology foundation built and in place, we can then look at how Cognitive Computing can be used to drive more value from the data. We are seeing much more interest in how to harness the predictive value contained within data that flows across the healthcare systems and this is where Cognitive Computing can play a key role. The best way forward is to move in a parallel rather than sequential manner for digitalisation and Cognitive Computing to both save time and see the added benefit of both implementations.