“Knowledge is a precious social asset”
~Haruki Murakami
Knowledge is indeed a precious social asset. Unfortunately this asset is often trapped within minds of individual experts and storage, such as books or digital media. As a result, this asset is often have high depreciation value. Even if it is available, it is difficult to use to its maximal extent at the point of application.
It cannot be truer than Healthcare. Patient treatment is often a tricky business. Every patient is different. And their treatments require to be personalized. Unfortunately, providing personalized treatment is not easy.
It is not that the knowledge is not there. Over the years, substantial practical medical knowledge has been built. But that knowledge is often spread across many research papers, patient case histories trapped in the repositories of many hospitals and treatment facilities across the world. Doctors, who need to take care of more patient than they can, do not have enough time even to go through the case histories they have access. Consuming the case histories from multiple sources and repositories is next to impossible for them.
Cognitive computing has come to rescue in such situation. Cognitive systems can ingest vast amount of information with structured and unstructured form, build knowledge, and can provide evidence-based recommendations to their human users.
In healthcare, they can go through the research papers, case histories and other documents and can be trained to be an expert in one or multiple areas of healthcare specialties. They can be of great assistance to the physicians and surgeons to recommend appropriate personalized treatment plan for a patient based on the vast knowledge ingested.
In fact it is happening now. IBM and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) have collaborated to train Watson for Oncology based on the huge amount of curated literature from MSKCC repository, as well as other medical literature such as text books, research papers, clinical trials etc. The system has the capability analyze a patient’s medical record, combine this analysis with its expertise, and identify the potential treatment plan for the patient.
With cognitive, the door to new horizon has been opened in healthcare. Please read “A booster shot for health and wellness”, the latest IBM Institute for Business Value study on the application of cognitive computing in the healthcare industry.
The physicians are often taking care with large number of patients. Providing personalized attention is often difficult for them.
Come visit IBM at HIMSS16, Booth #5932 to learn more about how cognitive system abilities are leading in helping to transform how healthcare is practiced and taught.
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We look forward to seeing you in Las Vegas on February 29 – March 4.