'Dr. Watson' could act as a physician's assistant, sorting electronic medical histories and even diagnosing patients.
The game-show-playing supercomputer Watson is expected to do much more than make a name for itself on Jeopardy.
IBM's computer could very well herald a whole new era in medicine.
Siegel, who refers to the computer not as the champ of Jeopardy but as "Dr. Watson," says he expects the computer, which can respond to questions with answers rather than with data and spread sheets, to radically improve doctors' care of their patients.
"If all Dr. Watson did was allow me to organize electronic medical records and bring to my attention what's most important and summarize it, that would be incredibly valuable to me.”
The ability to deliver a single, precise answer from these documents could go a long way in transforming the healthcare industry. Watson, the IBM computing system designed to play Jeopardy, could deliver such a solution.
She also said she believes that at some point Watson will have a speech-recognition capability so it can actually go into an exam room and listen to a patient talk about his symptoms while it runs through his medical records.
Doherty said that having a supercomputer that can ingest and analyze loads of data and then answer questions much as a human would could radically change not only medical diagnostics, but also medical research and pandemic recognition and management.
"Spotting trends could save lives and save money," he said. "What humans can't always see, Watson may be able to.”
"I think we're on the cusp of a revolution," Doherty added.
