IBM Acquires Truven Health Analytics To Enhance Watson Health

Truven Health Analytics is acquired by IBM from Veritas Capital to improve Watson Health by integrating an extensive  consumer based database.

IBM has purchased yet another business to improve its artificial intelligence system ‘Watson Health’. It announced plans to purchase Truven Health Analytics from investment company ‘Veritas Capital’ for an amount of $2.6 billion. The deal would probably close by the end of 2016.

After the disclosure of the news, the stock of the cloud-computing giant rallied by more than 5% in the trading session held on February 19, 2016. Truven is a leading analytics and cloud based medical data services provider with a significant consumer base of more than 8500 clients comprising of hospitals, government agencies, and insurance service providers. In addition, its rich cloud-based data set comprising of various types of outcomes, quality, cost and claims will probably be amongst the valuable assets of the New York based company.

After acquiring the organization, the dataset of IBM will have details from patients totaling over 300 million. This is the fourth organization acquired by IBM to improve the abilities of Watson Health Cloud. Previously it purchased Merge Healthcare, Phytel and Explorys. The four acquisitions have accounted for approximately $4 billion investment by the company.

IBM has been making significant efforts for advancing Watson, which is part of its $8 billion analytics business. An extensive consumer-based database would be integrated by Watson Health Cloud with advanced cognitive solutions for aiding the development of medical solutions using the Watson generated insights.

Furthermore, the company is making efforts for shifting in the medical sector towards value-based care from volume-based care. The value-based model is leveraging analytics and data to attain a deeper insight into the treatment’s specific components for getting a desired result in the late future.

The acquired organization would doubtlessly be adding to the efforts of the organization for driving growth in the late future. Watson is one of the significant initiatives for IBM as it shifts towards a provider of cognitive solutions from a software company.

The acquisition of Truven by IBM is the biggest deal the organization has signed in the three years after Gini Rometty became its CEO. During the course of her tenure, the Corporation has been focusing on investing money in the tech and data industries to help enhance its services and products related to the medical industry, especially Watson Health.

Watson is equipped with the capacity to analyze, interpret and even predict patterns in different types of data. It is viewed to be significant efforts of IBM for bouncing back from its recently suffered declines for the previous 3 years and 9 months. 

IBM Watson AI System Will Diagnose And Treat Cancer In India

IBM would jointly employ Watson with Indian oncologists to treat and diagnose cancer.

IBM has taken an initiative to address the concerns of the medical community. The New York based company and huge hospital system have tied up to treat and diagnose cancer care in the second most populated country where 1.2 billion residents are often unable to avail the services of oncologists, leaving their illnesses untreated and undetected. The corporation’s Watson artificial intelligence platform would be utilized by 16 associated academic centers and healthcare facilities, where more than 200,000 patients are availing cancer treatment every year.

IBM news exclaimed that the AI system would play its role in helping Manipal doctors rapidly bring customized treatment alternatives from a databank that is known for encompassing the most recent medical details from “15 million pages of medical content, including more than 200 medical textbooks and 300 medical journals,” the corporation stated while proclaiming the agreement in Bangalore.

“You have physicians already pressed for time — nowhere more so than in India — and they don’t have the capacity to read all of these innovations in medicine,” VP of IBM Watson Health, Rob Merkel stated in a phone call interview from India.

What requires a group of oncologists and cancer doctors a huge amount of time under normal circumstances could instead be achieved in a time span of few minutes from a handheld gadget, Merkel stated. Physicians in the country would be allowed to “apply this sea of knowledge” that could be done for particular patients.

At the Forbes Healthcare Summit held on Thursday in New York, IBM’s official, Deborah DiSanzo, would probably explain the Indian contract. “Watson for Oncology” was pioneered with Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center’s oncologists in New York. By utilizing their technology in India, people involved are hoping it would speed up the treatment and diagnostic process and let physicians cut down waiting times and reach more in the developing country.

IBM news today affirmed that there are 1 million new people diagnosed with cancer yearly in the Indian region where the proportion of cancer patients and oncological experts is 1600 to 1. By comparison, there’s one oncological expert for every patient diagnosed with cancer in the United States., IBM Watson stated.

CEO of Manipal Hospitals, Dr Ajay Bakshi, stated in a phone call interview “We are desperately short on doctors. This will ensure my patients are getting the best possible care.”

IBM Breaking news reported that the Big Blue previously took a similar initiative when it proclaimed to introduce Watson in Middle East after a time span of 10 years from now.