Cleveland Clinic to use IBM Watson for Genomic Research

Cleveland Clinic to use IBM Watson for Genomic Research : Researchers at Cleveland Clinic will use IBM Watson technology in the area of genomic research to help oncologists deliver personalized medicine by uncovering new cancer treatment options for patients.

The Lerner Research Institute’s Genomic Medicine Institute at Cleveland Clinic plans to evaluate Watson’s ability to help oncologists develop more personalized care to patients for a variety of cancers. Clinicians lack the tools and time required to bring DNA-based treatment options to their patients and to do so, they must correlate data from genome sequencing to reams of medical journals, new studies and clinical records. At a time when medical information is doubling every five years, a faster option is needed.

This use of Watson aims to find the “needle in the haystack” through identifying patterns in genome sequencing and medical data to unlock insights that will help clinicians bring the promise of genomic medicine to their patients. The combination of Cleveland Clinic’s clinical expertise coupled with the power of IBM’s Watson system will enable improvements to, and learnings within, the Watson tool with the shared goal of helping medical professionals develop personalized cancer care.

Cleveland Clinic to use IBM Watson for Genomic Research

The pilot initiative is an extension of on-going programs with Cleveland Clinic to aid the advancement of big data in healthcare. The use of Watson in genomic research draws on a combination of Watson’s cognitive services, deep computational biology models and IBM’s public cloud infrastructure SoftLayer. Watson can continually ‘learn’ as it encounters new patient scenarios, and as more information becomes available through new medical research, journal articles and clinical studies.

Given the depth and speed of Watson’s ability to review massive databases, the goal of the collaboration is to increase the number of patients who have access to care options tailored to their disease’s DNA.

IBM Watson represents a new era of computing in which apps and systems interact with human users more naturally, augment our knowledge with Big Data insights, and learn to improve how they assist us.

Cleveland Clinic is a nonprofit multispecialty academic medical center that integrates clinical and hospital care with research and education. Located in Cleveland, Ohio, it was founded in 1921 by four renowned physicians with a vision of providing outstanding patient care based upon the principles of cooperation, compassion and innovation. Cleveland Clinic has pioneered many medical breakthroughs, including coronary artery bypass surgery and the first face transplant in the United States. U.S. News & World Report consistently names Cleveland Clinic as one of the nation’s best hospitals in its annual “America’s Best Hospitals” survey. More than 3,000 full-time salaried physicians and researchers and 11,000 nurses represent 120 medical specialties and subspecialties.