by
Thomas Dworetzky, Contributing Reporter | August 21, 2018
Big Blue has a big problem with media coverage of Watson Heath.
After a number of negative stories about the progress of IBM's AI efforts – notably including one in Stat News and another in the August 11th Wall Street Journal – Dr. John Kelly, IBM senior vice president, Cognitive Solutions and IBM Research, is pushing back.
“We at IBM have a lot to be proud of, including our pioneering work with Watson Health,” he writes in his August 11th
blog post. “Unfortunately, some media reports, including an August 11th story published by The Wall Street Journal, distort and ignore facts when suggesting IBM has not made 'enough' progress on bringing the benefits of AI to healthcare.”
The
Stat piece had uncovered internal company documents said to show “multiple examples” of treatment recommendations that were wrong or unsafe.
The
Wall Street Journal piece noted that "more than a dozen IBM partners and clients have halted or shrunk Watson’s oncology-related projects."
Kelly acknowledged that the company had made “a big bet” on healthcare – including Watson for Oncology, Watson for Clinical Trial Matching, and Watson for Genomics – and that although there have been some dropouts, in all the systems are in 230 hospitals and health organizations worldwide. They've also doubled the number of patients reached to 84,000 in the first half of 2018.
“The first question we asked ourselves was, 'can Watson help oncologists make better decisions for their patients?'” Kelly said, noting that, “repeatedly, the answer has proven to be a resounding 'yes,' as demonstrated in both peer-reviewed research as well as regular feedback from those using these tools.”
Studies, previously reported, have shown success with the AI efforts, Kelly noted, arguing that, “to suggest there has been no patient benefit is to ignore both what we know The Wall Street Journal was told by a number of physicians around the world and these institutions’ own public comments.”
Kelly pointed to a number of studies that showed positive results, including one from Mayo Clinic led by Dr. Tufia Haddad, who found that Watson for Clinical Trial Matching boosted enrollment in breast cancer trials by 80 percent from pre-implementation rates.
