Presiding over the ceremonial opening of the new IBM. Watson Health global headquarters in Cambridge, Mass., IBM’s senior vice president Mike Rhodin highlighted the sometime-neglected focus of the effort to mine the ever-increasing quantities of health data. “We know that technology alone isn’t the answer,” said Rhodin. “At its core, Watson Health provides the means to orient the entire system around us.”
In a telephone conversation before the event, Dr. Lynda Chin, associate vice chancellor for health transformation at the University of Texas system, voiced a similar perspective: “Technology and innovation are the instigators for change, but they alone won’t do it. We have to think about implementation, about translating the technology into desired outcomes. Implementation is never just a technology play.”
Before assuming her current position in April, Dr. Chin was the founding chair of Genomic Medicine and scientific director of the Institute for Applied Cancer Science at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Two years ago, IBM and MD Anderson announced the Oncology Expert Advisor (OEA), based on IBM’s Watson data analytics engine, an expert system enabling clinicians to “uncover valuable insights from the cancer center’s rich patient and research databases.”
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