Cognitive Computing: A Brief Guide for Game Changers by Fingar Peter

Author:Fingar, Peter [Fingar, Peter]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Meghan-Kiffer Press
Published: 2014-12-02T05:00:00+00:00

http://wrd.cm/1n3Oy1q

“We aren’t taking the doctor out of the drivers seat,” said Cane, who founded the company with Dr. Michael Sherling, a dermatologist. “We are going to make Watson the ultimate research assistant and the ultimate collaborator to help determine a course of treatment.”

Based in Denver, Welltok operates CaféWell, a health optimization platform that enables people to improve their health via a combination of social networking, gaming and personalization technologies. Through Welltok’s customers, which are large healthcare organizations, the service has the potential to touch the lives of more than 20 million people.

Welltok’s CaféWell Concierge leverages IBM Watson to guide individuals through the process of learning about their health and modifying their lifestyles. It interacts with people through text or speech, guides them to personalized activities, content and communities, volunteers suggestions, and learns about them through interactions. Individuals earn rewards, including insurance premium discounts or copay reductions, for improving their health.

The company’s chief executive, Jeff Margolis, has spent nearly 20 years in the healthcare technology business, but his interest in improving the healthcare system is also personal. As a teenager, he was diagnosed with a serious illness, which led to a series of surgeries and still requires careful monitoring. “I’m on a mission,” he says. “We’re in the position to shift from sick care to proactively optimizing our health. Watson’s an accelerator. It’s groundbreaking.”

Meanwhile, there is a venture capital firm that invests in research in age-related diseases, biotechnology, oncology, drug discovery, bioinformatics, personalized medicine, and regenerative medicine. The firm, Hong Kong based Deep Knowledge Ventures, has appointed a computer algorithm to its board of directors! The program, called Vital, will vote on whether to invest in a specific company or not. The algorithm looks at a range of data when making decisions, including financial information, clinical trials for particular drugs, intellectual property owned by the firm and previous funding. Of course, the idea of the algorithm voting may be just a gimmick as most large companies use Big Data search to access what is happening in the market, then the board or trusted workers can decide on the advice. Still, the PR gimmick reminds us of the growing use of cognitive computing to harness Big Data for decision making.

For more on cognitive computing in health care, visit Xerox’s Palo Alto Research center’s (PARC) Cognitive Computing Lab:

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