IBM and Apple launch Watson Health Cloud
Technology partners Apple and IBM have cemented their relationship with the launch of Watson Health Cloud, a secure online platform for storing health-related data.
Designed to support Apple’s HealthKit and ResearchKit apps the database is intended for use by researchers, physicians and insurers and will be able to make sense of information whether it be drawn from personal fitness trackers or official medical records.
The cloud based system has been born out of a need to make sense of the growing maelstrom of data generated by a burgeoning health industry of apps and trackers and satiate the demands of even the most hypochondriac of users.
An IBM spokesperson said: “The future of health is all about the individual. With the increasing prevalence of personal fitness trackers, connected medical devices, implantables and other sensors that collect real-time information, the average person is likely to generate more than one million gigabytes of health-related data in their lifetime (the equivalent of more than 300 million books).
“However, it is difficult to connect these dynamic and constantly growing pools of information with more traditional sources such as doctor-created medical records, clinical research and individual genomes --- data sets that are fragmented and not easily shared. A highly scalable and secure global information platform is essential to pull out individualized insights to help people and providers make timely, evidence-based decisions about health-related issues.”
It follows a prediction made by IBM director Steve Abrams that Watson represents the ‘Third Era of computing.’