The supercomputer, named after the legendary president of IBM Thomas Watson, has already shown its prowess by taking on and beating TV quiz show contestants. Now oncologists hope the speed of treatments in rural areas could be transformed by the machine’s artificial intelligence.
The Watson is being tested by the Maine Centre for Cancer Medicine and Westmed Medical Group in upstate New York. Both are rural areas where patients can often struggle to get access to comprehensive medical care and treatment.
The processing power of the Watson supercomputer means it can sort through 1.5 million patient records and histories in seconds, analysing treatment outcomes to provide all the options for treatment for a specific patient.
Some 2 million pages from 42 medical journals, details of clinical trials in oncology research and more than 600,000 items of medical evidence and data have already been uploaded on to the computer.
IBM is also working with clinicians and technology experts to develop software that can help Watson process, analyse and interpret complex clinical information. The idea is that any doctor logging on to Watson can be connected to new information, research and treatment options in seconds because all the data on the computer will be as up to date as possible.
IBM has been working on Watson’s super powers for more than two years, demonstrating how the machine has been developed mimic the way people think by using it to take on and beat competitors in a US TV quiz show. The challenge now is to develop Watson further in the field of medical diagnosis.