Written by Tyler Sparks on Apr 27, 2015
How a Watch Might Just Save Your Life One Day
We are pleased to introduce Salucro Software Developer, Tyler Sparks. Tyler works on features for our web application and on-boards new healthcare providers into our system. He joined Salucro almost three years ago with a background in Web Development and Information Technology.
This month IBM announced their Watson AI system was going to dive even further into the healthcare system. Since 2013, Watson has been helping clinicians with lung cancer treatment decisions at the Memorial Sloan–Kettering Cancer Center.
More Health Data, More Personalized
Now officially under Watson Health, they’re partnering with Apple, Johnson & Johnson, and Medtronic, which will supply even more data to sift through and help researchers, doctors, and developers provide more personalized information to case studies, patients, and app users.
Partnering with these companies along with its healthcare cloud acquisitions give Watson the ability to gather information from a wide variety of devices, including the Apple Watch, fitness trackers, glucose monitors, and heart pacemakers. Providing an avenue to use its core Observation, Interpretation, Evaluation, and Decision model to provide real time about the data it receives.
A Supercomputer at Your Wrist
Access to every day medical devices is exciting and will help with improving their effectiveness and helping pair the right people with the right devices. But as a developer, the Apple partnership is phenomenal.
Now any developer can use Apple’s HealthKit or ResearchKit, their new frameworks for creating health related mobile apps on iPhone and Apple Watch, and tie in access to Watson improving the quality of information and care of the app.
Users will also be able to opt in to send anonymous data to Watson for researchers to access and improve the breadth of their study.
Accurate, Convenient Health Asssessments
With a wealth of current research, data, and analytics to compare and evaluate the data it receives from these devices, Watson will be able to learn and see patterns that could even escape a physician during a normal checkup.
It will be able to assist in areas of disease recognition, treatments for illnesses and injuries, and the best possible outcomes for patients overall. Watson will only continue to grow and become more accurate, as more devices and more users become connected and send up the data that will grow Watson’s ability to detect abnormalities and help us.
While this is just a start, as Watson delves into the healthcare rabbit hole, it is definitely paving a path that could lead to a more integrative and personalized healthcare approach to our bodies and how we treat a wide variety of ailments.
Eventually leading to a health guardian that is constantly monitoring your biofeedback to assist in everyday life.
Surprising Ways Wearables Can Save Lives
Given access Watson could be able to notify your physician if your irregular heart beat signals the pattern of an arrhythmia or maybe even phone 911 if you’re having a heart attack. Who wouldn’t want a little assistance when time, even seconds, could be life-saving?
At Salucro we are dedicated to moving healthcare forward. Follow us on LinkedIn for more updates like this one.