IBM Watson is a cognitive computing system which has been particularly designed to support the oncology community. This is a great module that allows physicians to consider treatment options with their patients. With its core capabilities—reading natural language, evaluating cases with evolving machine-learned models, finding and providing supporting evidence from a wide variety of sources, and rapidly processing large volumes of data—cognitive computing is being used in oncology to transform healthcare and help address some of the challenges oncologists are facing.
Cancer is fast turning into an epidemic in India.According to a study by The National Cancer Institute (NCI), every 13th new cancer patient in the world is an Indian. In 2016, the total number of new cancer cases is anticipated to be around 14.5 lakh and that figure is likely to reach nearly 17.3 lakh in 2020, as per a study by The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).
The good news is that the paramount importance of technology, especially cognitive, is being recognised by healthcare institutes. Manipal Hospitals has adopted IBM Watson for Oncology, a cognitive computing platform, to help physicians identify options for individualised, evidence-based cancer care across India. This is the first deployment of Watson’s cognitive computing platform in the country.
Researchers are using cognitive computing to find personalised cancer treatments for patients. Humans and machines are forging a new age of understanding. Clinicians and analysts are training cognitive computing system to interpret cancer patients’ clinical information and identify individualised, evidence-based treatment options that leverage decades of experience and research by top oncologists, across the globe.
A ray of hope
Watson can understand the case and highlight a list of potential treatments with a percentage rank of certitude. The doctor then reviews the list and makes the final treatment decision in consult with the patient.
Watson for Oncology will be able to have information to allow them to explore treatment options, and gather evidence specific to a patients’ individual health needs. Watson ranks identified treatment options and provides links to supporting evidence for each option to help oncologists as they consider treatment options for their patient.
Watson for Oncology draws from an impressive corpus of information, and, to date, more than 300 medical journals, more than 200 textbooks, and nearly 15 million pages of text. The cognitive computing platform also supplies for consideration supporting evidence in the form of administration information, as well as information regarding the different drug options. Watson’s machine learning capability means it is continuously learning over time,and doctors have access to peer reviewed studies, clinical guidelines and expert perspectives.
Imagine, cancer patients—irrespective of their financial backgrounds—receiving personalised treatment in a country which is starved of oncologists, cancer-specialised hospitals, and is home to 2.5 million cancer patients, with 1 million new cases being added every year and a chance of the disease rising five-fold by 2025. These terrifying numbers emphasize the pressing need for, among other things, cognitive computing in redefining healthcare.
Without doubt, valuable lessons can be learned from use of cognitive computing by healthcare institutes and replicated elsewhere across the country.
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