StarDestroyer.Net BBS

http://money.cnn.com/2011/09/12/technol ... hpt=hp_bn4

"Imagine having the ability to take in all the information around a patient's medical care -- symptoms, findings, patient interviews and diagnostic studies," Dr. Sam Nussbaum, WellPoint's (WLP, Fortune 500) chief medical officer, said in a prepared statement.

"Then, imagine using Watson analytic capabilities to consider all of the prior cases, the state-of-the-art clinical knowledge in the medical literature and clinical best practices to help a physician advance a diagnosis and guide a course of treatment," he added.

I do kind of find this intriguing. I realize we're not at the point where computers can do diagnoses alone, but I can really see how this would help put doctors on the right track.

The article is a bit light on some details, but the consideration that Watson gives is not just a "based on the information, here is the one diagnosis" black-and-white decision, but will also show other possible diagnoses. It'll also make suggestions for further information to be gathered from the patient to try and hone in on a possible problem. It's a pretty interesting concept.

(Note: I attended a talk by Watson's principle investigator, David Ferrucci, and he went into some detail about the medical software they're developing).

This application is one of several mentioned when they first introduced Watson.