I work on a computer system called IBM Watson – I might have mentioned it once or twice before?
Yesterday, IBM unveiled the progress that we and our partners have made with Watson in healthcare at an event in New York.
I didn’t get to go, but I did keep half an eye on what was happening through twitter. Here are some of the tweets that caught my eye.
Some of the tweets set the scene for what we’re trying to do with Watson, and how we’ve been doing it in partnership with people with deep expertise in the healthcare field.
1.6M new cases of cancer this year, rate of costs climbing 3X, need to capitalize on rapidly changing info @ibmwatson can help
— IBM Watson (@IBMWatson) February 8, 2013
WellPoint’s Dr. Sam Nussbaum:We have an opportunity to take big data and create personalized care. #ibmwatson #TransformingHealthCare
— WellPoint (@WellPoint) February 8, 2013
#IBMWatson is using evidence-based treatment models to individualize care and improve the speed and qual of treatment.33charts.com/2013/02/why-ib…
— Damian Borbolla (@daborbolla) February 8, 2013
WellPoint’s Dr Sam Nussbaum: we have to make sure we implement evidence-based care. #ibmwatson #TransformingHealthCare
— WellPoint (@WellPoint) February 8, 2013
#IBMwatson approaches a #cancer patient’s case just like a doctor; considers symptoms, test results, treatment options
— Sloan-Kettering (@sloan_kettering) February 8, 2013
#ibmwatson Manoj Saxena: focus is on collaboration IBM knows tech, partners @sloan_kettering @wellpoint know medicine twitter.com/ajbowles/statu…
— Adrian Bowles (@ajbowles) February 8, 2013
Chief Medical Officer @wellpoint talks about advancing evidence based care from today’s std of ~50% to > 90% with #ibmwatson.
— Stephen Gold (@sgold1b) February 8, 2013
@ibmwatson can sift thru millions of pages of info. We’re using this tech. to give docs fast access to info. ow.ly/hy0tf @mashable
— WellPoint (@WellPoint) February 8, 2013
Lori Beer from @wellpoint – 40-60% of nurses time spent on aggregating info, @ibmwatson reduces that, focus energy on clinical part of job
— IBM Watson (@IBMWatson) February 8, 2013
Numbers and stats are always popular, particularly in tweets when you only have 140 characters to sum up the progress that has been made on advancing Watson since Jeopardy! and the achievements we made last year.
MT @sloan_kettering: #IBMWatson is now 240% faster than it was in the Jeopardy! demo. It’s smarter, too, thanks to “trainers” @sloan_kettering and other partners
— SUSE (@SUSE) February 9, 2013
@ibmwatson has read 600K+ pieces of evidence & 2M pages from medical journals & clinical trials re: oncology research
— kdattoli (@kdattoli) February 8, 2013
#ibmwatson 2012 success: 6 deployments, 90% of nurses follow Watson recs, 75% reduction in time to market w/ new #cancer therapies.
— Paul Barsch (@paul_a_barsch) February 8, 2013
#IBMWatson is disruptive technology in healthcare says Cleveland Clinic, 90% accurate when trained! — IBM Watson (@ibmwatson)
— Xavier Noguera Pages (@XavierNoguera) February 8, 2013
Practicing evidence-based medicine: doctors are 50% accurate; #IBMwatsonis 90% when trained. Dr Kris says only 100% accuracy is acceptable
— Caitlin Hool (@caitlin_hool) February 8, 2013
Speaking of statistics, there was some idea of the effort that has been involved in training Watson to be able to perform it’s work.
@loriabeer ‘Wellpoint clinicians spent over 14,700 hours and used 25,000 medical case scenarios to train #IBMWatson‘. Will change medicine
— Manoj Saxena (@manojsaxena) February 8, 2013
How many docs @sloan_kettering using #IBMwatson? Dr. Kris: 5 or 6 currently training Watson in breast & lung cancer. Plans to rapidly expand
— Sloan-Kettering (@sloan_kettering) February 8, 2013
It wasn’t all slides.
We also demonstrated one of the Watson applications we’re developing – the IBM Watson Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment Adviser.
It was exciting to see some of the reactions.
“RT @aweiner87: If you have 2 min, check out the @ibmwatson Demo video. It might blow your mind. youtube.com/watch?v=8lGJ0h… “ v cool
— John Poikonen,PharmD (@poikonen) February 8, 2013
RT @aweiner87: If you have 2 min, check out the @ibmwatson Demo video. It might blow your mind. youtube.com/watch?v=8lGJ0h… #FutureMED
— Dr. Steven Eisenberg (@drseisenberg) February 8, 2013
IBM’s Watson Oncology demo….absolutely amazing ow.ly/hyQ84 #futuremed
— Geoff McKee (@DrGWM) February 8, 2013
I’m really pleased with the demo. We explain how we’re trying to build something that can act as an assistant to medical professionals and get the information that they need at their fingertips, but I think the demo makes that come to life.
IBM Watson Demo: Oncology Diagnosis and Treatment
It’s an eight-minute walkthrough – if you’re in a hurry, there is a cut-down version here.
Will #IBMwatson constrain physicians? Dr. Mark Kris: No doc who has seen demo is opposed. Watson might see detail that makes difference
— Sloan-Kettering (@sloan_kettering) February 8, 2013
@doctor_v Totally agree w/ all three points. Can’t wait til @ibmwatson can listen in on doc/pt visit, document, & provide decision support.
— Sunil M. Patel, MD (@CommunityOnc) February 8, 2013
Dr. Mark Kris on #IBMWatson: Has won hearts of patients & doctors alike…Patients are excited and see it as enhancement in care.
— Sloan-Kettering (@sloan_kettering) February 8, 2013
RT @ajbowles: Dr Kris – not one Dr he has talked to about #ibmwatson has felt threatened. they want it as a colleague>> Me too!
— Tom Morrissey (@tom_morrissey) February 8, 2013
Chris Coburn from @clevelandclinic says “all physicians we’ve had involved in the #IBMWatson program get it right away”
— John Gordon (@john_b_gordon) February 8, 2013
Dr. Kris @sloan_kettering #IBMWatson – I’ve seen this demo before. If anyone in my family needs cancer care, I want Watson on the team
— Adrian Bowles (@ajbowles) February 8, 2013
“Patients, doctors, and providers are all winners with this.” – @sloan_kettering‘s Dr. Mark Kris on #IBMWatson
— Sloan-Kettering (@sloan_kettering) February 8, 2013
Some of the discussion looked ahead to the usage of Watson that we expect.
Dr. Tracey Weisberg from Maine CCM shares how #IBMWatson will be used by 50%+ of cancer patients treated in community hospitals.
— John Gordon (@john_b_gordon) February 8, 2013
#WellPoint plans to roll out first #Ibmwatson solution to 1600+ providers and over 1500 internal clinicians this year
— Stephen Gold (@sgold1b) February 8, 2013
Impressive!: @WellPoint More than 50 percent of @wellpoint nurses will use @ibmwatson solutions by the end of 2013. #ibmwatson
— stefan ohlsson (@OhlssonStefan) February 8, 2013
Dr. Simeon Schwartz discusses why WestMed Medical Group is becoming an early adopter of @wellpoint oncology solution using #IBMWatson
— John Gordon (@john_b_gordon) February 8, 2013
“This is the start of a journey.”@manojsaxena #ibmwatson @sloan_kettering @wellpoint #TransformingHealthCare
— WellPoint (@WellPoint) February 8, 2013
Finally, towards the end of the event, links to some of the more interesting stories and articles started getting shared.
Why today’s news about #IBMWatson is important bit.ly/WU4TcR
— Bryan Vartabedian (@Doctor_V) February 8, 2013
Read perspective of Mark Kris, chief of @sloan_kettering Thoracic Oncology Service, on #IBMWatson partnership bit.ly/YfFuY1
— kdattoli (@kdattoli) February 8, 2013
Washington Post “IBM offers supercomputer Watson apps in cancer, health insurance”wapo.st/Wz5gKA #IBMwatson #Bigdata #Analytics
— Marc Teerlink (@marcteerlink) February 9, 2013
Trained with 600,000 pieces of #medical evidence & 2M pages of #research, #cloud-based @ibmwatson helps fighting cancer ow.ly/hziB5
— Stefan Stremersch (@StStremersch) February 9, 2013
IBM’s Watson Gets Its First Piece Of Business In Healthcare – Forbes onforb.es/WU7UtN #IBMWatson
— IBM (@IBM) February 8, 2013
.@sloan_kettering puts @ibmwatson to use to aid cancer treatment decisions – via @engadget: ow.ly/hyMoS #TransformingHealthCare
— Scott Larrivee (@AnthemPR_WI) February 9, 2013
There were many other articles that I’ve seen, including zdnet, The Verge, Ars Technica, Mashable and others.
We regularly hear from the partners that we’re working with the difference that Watson is already making, and their excitement for the future potential that it has to transform healthcare.
But it was fun that yesterday we got to share that with a wider audience and start an even bigger conversation about how to take this forward.
Tags: watson