IBM Watson for Clinical Decision Support

One approach to the design of a medical decisioning system is to avoid making specific decisions, but rather scan through the hugely voluminous structured (databases) and unstructured (text) data sources, and present a list of evidence-based alternatives. These alternatives can be submitted to the most sophisticated non-linear analytical processing system in the universe: the minds of the physicians charged with providing the right diagnosis and treatment for the right patient at the right time. This chapter describes an early attempt to use the IBM Watson computer (winner of the TV contest show, Jeopardy!) to create such a tool, which in the hands of the physician is a very sophisticated extension of his or her own brain.