by Brenda J. Christie
If I were to use some of the new BI and Analytics tools IBM has debuted, I might find that a lot of the conversation surrounds its stock price, its continued predilection towards remaining in a supposedly dying segment (mainframe) and missed EPS.
However, in researching content for an upcoming Dash DB Enterprise MPP article, I came across a side of IBM that does not receive as much press, yet holds the possibility of benefiting millions of people. Specifically, I refer to IBM's Billion dollar investments in healthcare - an industry very different from mainframes, software and hardware.
IBM's commitment to healthcare is evident in its August 6, 2015 announcement of its planned $1 Billion acquisition of Merge Healthcare. The combination of IBM Watson's analytical and cognitive capabilities with Merge Healthcare's medical image processing and handling efficacies will potentially enhance physician's patient care decision making efficacy.
Further evidence of IBM's social consciousness is illustrated in a recent TechCrunch article, "IBM Watson Health Begins to Take Shape." TechCrunch reports that through partnership with Apple, IBM plans to harness data via Apple wearable devices such as Healthkit and ResearchKit for use with IBM Watson analytics to fight diseases such as breast cancer, Parkinson's Disease and brain cancer. IBM has also partnered with Medtronics to improve diabetes care.
According to IBM, each person generates one million gigabytes of health-related data in a lifetime. ZDNet reports in a February 4, 2011 article, "The total on-chip bandwidth for Watson's 360 POWER7 processors is an astounding 180,000 Gigabytes per second!" Clearly, Watson has enough computing power to analyze an individual's lifetime health-related data. An additional value, to people, the medical field and businesses is Watson's ability to see trends and patterns and perform predictive analysis quickly. This can lead to better quality of life, prevention, reduction in healthcare costs to both individuals and companies, relieve states' Medicaid and Medicare burden.
But how does it work?
But how does it work?
An IBM infographic on how IBM Watson Health works appears below.
Regardless of whether IBM lives up to the financial markets expectations on this venture, there is no doubt that the potential benefit to humanity as a result is real. IBM, in conjunction with its partners, harnesses the power and capability learnt over decades to expedite finding cure for all too prevalent ills which befall humanity. In this writer's mind, it is for this reason that technology exists.
Bye for now,
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