"Memorial Sloan-Kettering's evidence-based clinicalapproach, scientific acumen, and vast database make it the ideal partner inthis ambitious project," Dr. Martin Kohn, chief medical scientist at IBM, saidin a press release. "Cancer care is profoundly complex with continuous clinicaland scientific advancements to consider. This field of clinical information,given its importance on both a human and economic level, is exactly the type ofgrand challenge IBM Watson can help address."
The partnership fits well into the growing trend ofpersonalized medicine, especially as more is discovered about the increasingcomplexity of cancer and cancer fatalities continue to rise. The disease is nowthe second most common cause of death in the United States next to heartdisease, and approximately 1.6 million new cases are expected to be diagnosedthis year in the United States alone, according to the American Cancer Society.The companies have already begun working on the first applications for the newsystem, which will include breast, lung and prostate cancers, and aim to startpiloting the solutions late this year, with wider distribution to take placelate in 2013.
"This comprehensive, evidence-based approach will profoundlyenhance cancer care by accelerating the dissemination of practice-changingresearch at an unprecedented pace," Dr. Mark G. Kris, Chief of ThoracicOncology Service at MSKCC, said in a press release. Kris is one of theclinicians heading up development efforts for the new system.
SOURCE: MSKCC press release
