Wednesday, January 4, 2012

IBM Watson

IBM news making supercomputer Watson, known famously for beating the best Jeopardy players in the world and taking home the games prize money, has now been tasked  to work for the health insurance industry for the company Wellpoint.  According to the Wall Street Journal the  expectations of the tasks Watson has been given are that of "helping suggest treatment options and diagnoses to doctors". WellPoint and IBM reached the deal Monday allowing  the health insurer to use Watson's toptier technology for a range of applications. As mentioned on the WSJ, "It is part of a far broader push in the health industry to incorporate computerized guidance into care, as doctors and hospitals adopt electronic medical records and other digital tools that can record, track and check their work." Basically this supercomputer will use its computing power to run health applications, such as health insurance records of patients and set appropriate diagnosis with each one at a far better and more accurate range. It will basically be a data center computer will patients info in which many applications can be used simultaneously within each patient. If anyone watched the Jeopardy match up against the best players, Watson proved  to be and lived up to its much anticipated computing power. It has the ability to learn and improve upon itself so one could see it's use in the health industry. WellPoint Insurer has  seen the potential Watson can offer so many suppose a health insurance company using it for medical purposes is a fitting job for such a powerful computer.

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