IBM Corp. has announced that the tech company plans a $1 billion buyout of the medical imaging company Merge Healthcare. The big deal would combine the company's newly created analytics department with its powerful Watson supercomputer, to improve the diagnosis and treatment of various health conditions and diseases.
IBM's objective is to combine images and data from Merge's medical imaging platform, with Watson's computing system, according to The Times of India. The supercomputer's system is cloud-based.
Watson can analyze tons of data, and answers difficult questions given in everyday language. In 2011 it defeated humans with encyclopedic knowledge on the Jeopardy quiz show. Meanwhile, "Chef Watson" uses algorithms to whip up original recipes, by pairing up ingredients in odd combinations.
Dougherty and Co. industry analyst Brooks O'Neil stated that while imaging is critical to accurate diagnosis and treatment of conditions and diseases, it is also becoming critical for health care providers to share the images with other organizations. That results in better and cheaper care.
Furthermore, IBM vice president Stephen Gold shared that his corporation wants to invest more in core technologies. It will be combined with company acquisitions.
IBM senior vice president John Kelly explained that imaging and scanning machines have become excellent, producing very complex dense and moving images that can be difficult to comprehend, according to Pioneer News. Watson will help physicians.
Supercomputers continue to get smarter and faster. Thus, they can help medical professionals to make quicker diagnoses of diseases.
Kelly argues that the public should not be concerned that computers will misuse patients' data such as medical and family histories. Scientists are researching which tasks humans can still do better than machines.
As a result of IBM's acquisition of Merge, it will have access to 7,500 United States healthcare sites.