Mayo Clinic, IBM Partner To Match Patients To Clinical Trials
By Cyndi Root
The Mayo Clinic and IBM announced in a press release that they plan to use Watson, a supercomputer, to match patients to clinical trials. IBM’s Watson is a cognitive computer, which will be customized for Mayo Clinic applications. The computer will teach itself and mature over time, becoming more efficient at matching patients and locating patients for difficult trials, such as rare diseases.
The two intend to introduce the program early in 2015. Steven Alberts, M.D., chair of medical oncology at Mayo Clinic, said, “In an area like cancer - where time is of the essence — the speed and accuracy that Watson offers will allow us to develop an individualized treatment plan more efficiently so we can deliver exactly the care that the patient needs.”
Watson
Mike Rhodin, SVP of IBM Watson Group said that Watson’s cognitive computing capabilities would allow the Mayo Clinic to offer more options, conclude trials faster, and advance scientific discoveries. Mayo Clinic staff are currently assisting Watson personnel in inputting previous clinical trial information so that the computer can start to analyze patient records and clinical trial criteria in preparation for patient matching. IBM and the Mayo Clinic are also in discussions on developing other applications with Watson.
Watson is designed to read natural language, which makes up to 80 percent of common types of unstructured data. The computer can answer a question by generating a hypothesis culled from data and relevant evidence.
Clinical Trial Challenges
Trial enrollment is one of the most challenging aspects of clinical trials. Currently, investigators enroll patients manually, sorting through patients records in an attempt to match them with trials. The Mayo Clinic states that it is conducting over 8,000 studies at its facilities and another 170,000 worldwide. With those numbers, Watson’s cognitive computing ability is especially desirable. The promise of more accurate, more consistent, and faster matches is driving this new initiative.
Another challenge in clinical trials is that many are not completed due to insufficient enrollment, which Watson may be able to remedy. At the Mayo Clinic, only five percent of patients agree to participate in trials and that number is lower nationwide, coming in at just three percent. With Watson’s assistance, Mayo hopes to raise enrollment to 10 percent, which would lead to improved quality in research.