1. Date: 03-15-13
Blog Title:Combining Technology with Data for ImprovedHealthcare Delivery
Category: General, ICD-10, Oncology
Author: Melissa Vidakovic, Director of Marketing
Content:
With all the talk around the benefits that ICD-10 data will provide to enrich our knowledge such as
enhancing quality measures and improving overall patient care, it’s important to note that not only will
key data come from code sets, but from new technologies being developed.And combined together,
data and technology are making improvements in patient care not just a hot conversation topic, but a
reality. So you might ask, what are some of these technologies? For starters…Watson.
What is Watson and why is it involved in healthcare?
Big data and its challenges are not just an issue for big companies. It is a major issue for
healthcare. In the digital age, with medical information doubling in volumes and over 10,000
medical papers published yearly, how’s a physician, physician practice, hospital or other healthcare
organization to keep up? It seems humanly impossible to read all of that information and
accurately remember the details. That’s where Watson comes in.
This is not Sherlock’s Watson. This is IBM’s Watson – asupercomputer that has cognitive ability to
crunch big data and learn over time.
In recent years, Watson may have been best known for outwitting two of the top human
contestants to ever play “Jeopardy,” but, as IBM indicated, Watson would be working in
Healthcare.And in just two years, IBM has unveiled IBM Watson™ Oncology Diagnosis and
Treatment Advisor.
IBM Watson™ Oncology Diagnosis and Treatment Advisor, developed with partners like Memorial
Sloan Kettering and Wellpoint, is cognitive computing technology that can combine patient data
from an EMR with a vast knowledge-base of hundreds and thousands of data points such as
medical journals, association guidelines, clinical trials and more to quickly sift through andidentify
treatment and solution options that have a higher probability of success for the patient, which is
critical in areas like oncology.
Watch the IBM Watson Demo: Oncology Diagnosis and Treatment Video – this demo was created
in close collaboration with Memorial Sloan Kettering.
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Other technology advances – the iDoctor

2. So, we now know there’s a supercomputer crunching data for healthcare, but what do smartphones and
medicine have to do with one another?
Well, in this recent clip on NBC News, Dr. Eric Topol, one of the leaders in the exploding field of wireless
medicine, talks about various new technologies from a wireless EKGvia a modified iPhone to other tools
to monitor patients after they’ve been discharged from the hospital.
Learn more here at NBC News: http://www.nbcnews.com/id/21134540/vp/50582822#50582822
One can only imagine what the future holds for healthcare, but it looks bright, as advances in
digital medicine seek to create better healthcare and ultimately improve patient outcomes.