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news.IBM and Nuance Communications have entered a research agreement to explore, develop and commercialize the Watson computing system's advanced analytics capabilities in the healthcare industry.
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The Watson computing system analyzes the meaning and context of human language, processes information and gives precise answers to assist decision makers get hold of important knowledge or facts from within huge volumes of information.
This initiative will combine Nuance’s speech recognition and Clinical Language Understanding (CLU) solutions with IBM’s Deep Question Answering (QA), Natural Language Processing, and Machine Learning capabilities to aid in the diagnosis and treatment of patients by giving hospitals, physicians and payers access to critical and timely information.
The University of Maryland School of Medicine and the Columbia University Medical Center are also contributing their medical expertise and research to this collaboration.
IBM Research senior vice president and director John Kelly III said this initiative demonstrates how IBM plans to apply Watson’s capabilities into new areas, such as healthcare with Nuance.
Nuance chairman and CEO Paul Ricci opined the initiative represented a logical step in Nuance’s evolution – one that expanded its capabilities from recognizing what was said to understanding the intent and providing guidance.
IBM and Nuance plan to further co- invest in a multi-year research initiative targeted to the applications of the Watson technology.
The first commercial offerings from the collaboration are expected to be available in 18-24 months.