What Do We Do, Doctor? Ask Watson — the Robot
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Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center(NEW YORK) — “What’s the best treatment for Jane’s stage-three breast cancer?” the doctor asks. He isn’t asking a colleague or a medical student. He’s talking to a computer. A supercomputer. A robot of sorts.
This is set to become real life at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. The hospital has partnered with IBM to use its Watson supercomputer.
The computer, which is best-known for the way it crushed its human competition on Jeopardy, can interpret spoken queries and then uses statistical analysis to deliver “evidence-based statistically-ranked responses,” says IBM. Watson can read 200 million pages of data in three seconds.
“We have formed a partnership with Memorial Sloan-Kettering to develop tools to help improve decision making for diagnosis and therapy in cancer,” Dr. Martin Kohn, IBM’s Chief Medical Scientist, told ABC News.
Kohn was clear about one thing: Watson will not make actual decisions. It will work hand-in-hand with doctors.
The Watson version being designed for the hospital works similarly to the way it played Jeopardy. When it is asked a question, it will provide suggestions — one in which Watson feels most confident, and then some strong alternatives.
However, Memorial Sloan-Kettering is feeding Watson more information than it got on Jeopardy, and that comes in the way of patients’ medical backgrounds. Watson is learning the hospital’s advanced electronic medical records system, making it even smarter and able to make very strong recommendations based on patients’ backgrounds.
Right now, IBM and Memorial Sloan-Kettering are working to feed Watson loads of oncology information. Both expect it to be a process that will evolve over the next year.
Wellpoint, an insurance company, also hired Watson last year to guide treatment decisions for members.
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio