IBM partners on health data, establishes health business unit
IBM is teaming up with Apple, Johnson & Johnson, and Medtronic on health data initiatives based on the new IBM Watson Health Cloud cognitive computing platform. IBM and Apple will expand their partnership to join IBM cloud services and analytics with Apple’s HealthKit and ResearchKit to address employee health and wellness management. Johnson & Johnson will use IBM technology to model and apply medical evidence to optimize patient interventions, and Medtronics will develop personalized care management solutions for diabetic patients.
IBM said the partnerships are not exclusive and it expects other companies to leverage the Watson platform.
IBM describes the Watson Health Cloud as a secure and open platform for physicians, researchers, insurers, and companies focused on health and wellness solutions, adding that the HIPAA-enabled Watson Health Cloud will provide secure access to individualized insights and picture of the many factors that can affect people’s health.
In addition, IBM said it is acquiring Explorys and Phytel to advance its healthcare analytics capabilities and is establishing a dedicated business unit called IBM Watson Health, to be headquartered in the Boston area.
A spin-off from the Cleveland Clinic in 2009, Explorys offers a secure cloud-computing platform used by 26 major integrated healthcare systems to identify patterns in diseases, treatments and outcomes. It integrates more than 315 billion clinical, financial, and operational data elements, spanning 50 million unique patients, 360 hospitals, and more than 317,000 providers.
Phytel develops and sells cloud-based services that help healthcare providers and care teams work together to ensure care is effective and coordinated in order to meet new healthcare quality requirements and reimbursement models.
IBM said the average person is likely to generate more than a million gigabytes of health-related data over a lifetime—in the form of fragmented datasets that are not easily shared.
“All this data can be overwhelming for providers and patients alike, but it also presents an unprecedented opportunity to transform the ways in which we manage our health,” said John E. Kelly III, IBM senior vice president, solutions portfolio and research, in a press release. “We need better ways to tap into and analyze all of this information in real-time to benefit patients and to improve wellness globally. Only IBM has the advanced cognitive capabilities of Watson and can pull together the vast ecosystem of partners, practitioners, and researchers needed to drive change, as well as to provide the open, secure, and scalable platform needed to make it all possible.”
“Watson Health builds on years of collaborative relationships with leaders across the healthcare ecosystem,” added Michael Rhodin, senior vice president, IBM Watson. “The groundbreaking applications of Watson’s cognitive computing capabilities by medical clients and partners clearly demonstrated the potential to fundamentally change the quality, efficiency and effectiveness of healthcare delivery worldwide. We’re excited to broaden access to world-class technology and to work with our partners to transform health and wellness for millions of people.”
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