Anyone that watched Jeopardy last week saw Watson handle the best of the best when it came to answering obscure questions in nanoseconds. It was fascinating and scary. Nuance and IBM announced collaboraton on Watson. Healthcare is the most obvious next step. Watson will make a huge difference in diagnostic medicine. Access to a computer that can digest symptoms and instantaneously spit out answers and syndromes, will provide immediate benefit to practicing physicians and to patients.
Watson will not replace the intangible benefit of "healing hands and heart" of a physician patient interaction (at least not anytime soon) but it will immediately even the playing field for patients in remote locations or for those who cannot afford the luxury of the brightest doctors at the best academic centers. If you have ever been sick with a rare set of symptoms, then Watson will help scan millions of data instantaneously to match your symptoms to a diagnosis or at least a set of possiblities.
Medical students will have Watson as a teaching tool and that will also help even out inequalities in teaching.
No one here is saying that Watson will replace the ability of a doctor to interpret a patients symptoms, call for help, or need for intangible emotional care that the best doctors can provide and read into their patients needs. Critics will yell about Watson but they will be wrong. In this case, technology moves forward and will yield overall positive benefits.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
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