Apollo Hospitals adopts IBM Watson for Oncology and IBM Watson for Genomics

IBM and Apollo Hospitals on Tuesday announced that Apollo will adopt Watson for Oncology and Watson for Genomics.

The two IBM cognitive computing platforms will help physicians provide patients with personalised, evidence-based cancer care. This agreement is the first-of-its kind Watson for Oncology & Watson for Genomics deployment in India.

Apollo Hospitals will build on its long legacy of clinical excellence with dedicated cancer care hospitals in India by implementing Watson for Oncology and Watson for Genomics across ten of its 64 hospitals.

Watson for Oncology will be available at the Apollo Chennai and Delhi hospital from April 2018, followed by Hyderabad, Mumbai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Bhubaneshwar and Madurai over the next few months.

Watson for Genomics will become available across the same locations in the following months. The Watson for Oncology and Watson for Genomics solutions will help oncologists at Apollo surface relevant data to bridge disparate sources of information and identify treatments that are personalized to each unique patient.

According to a report published by the WHO,  there are an estimated 9. 49 lakh new cancer cases in India annually, accounting for more than 6.34 lakh deaths related to cancer each year.

Also, as per the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), there will be close to 17.3 lakh cancer cases likely to be reported in India by 2020, accounting for more than 8.8 lakh estimated number of deaths by 2020.

As healthcare providers seek to enable data-driven, evidence-based cancer care, an explosion of medical information has created both challenges and opportunities to improve quality care.

Currently, approximately 50,000 oncology research papers are published annually, and by 2020 medical information is projected to double every 73 days, outpacing the ability of humans to keep up with the proliferation of medical knowledge.

Commenting on the development, Apollo Hospitals Group Vice Chairperson Preetha Reddy said the company is dedicated to provide patients with best-in-class cancer care for more than two decades now.

"Our collaboration with IBM is a reinforcement of our commitment to clinical excellence. Each person’s cancer journey is unique and hence each patient’s treatment plan must be unique too.  IBM Watson for Oncology and Genomics will help the clinicians and oncologists at Apollo Hospitals augment their own expertise to deliver an unparalleled and personalised patient care across our hospitals,"she said.

Speaking on the collaboration, IBM Watson Health General Manager of Oncology, Genomics and Life Sciences Lisa Rometty said the collaboration with Apollo Hospitals reflects IBM’s ongoing commitment to partner with leading healthcare providers across the world to leverage the power of artificial intelligence to support cancer care.

"By using IBM Watson for Oncology and Watson for Genomics the physicians at Apollo Hospitals will be empowered with efficient, data-driven insights for improved evidence-based care to give physicians more time to focus on their patients,"said Rometty.