Best Doctors and IBM Make Watson Available as an Employee Benefit
BOSTON – Best Doctors® and IBM today announced that Watson’s oncology prowess is now available as an employee health benefit for companies that want to help members of their workforce battling cancer. Through the Best Doctors network of expert clinical consultation providers, employees will have access to Watson’s suite of oncology offerings for insights on cancer treatment options, ranging from standard treatment to clinical trials to precision medicine. The impactful collaboration of Best Doctors and Watson is not only expected to curb misdiagnosis and the often painful consequences of an incorrect treatment, but also help companies identify significant cost savings as a result of these efforts.
“Cancer is a devastating diagnosis, and patients and their caregivers want assurance they have left no stone unturned in how they take on the disease,”said Dr. Lewis Levy, chief medical officer, Best Doctors. “Now a second opinion staffed by the powerful combination of Watson and world-renowned oncologists at Best Doctors is just a phone call away.”
By combining Watson and Best Doctors, employees receive personalized recommendations with the added confidence of knowing that every diagnosis and treatment plan is offered after navigating all available data and the best clinical trials. All options are thoroughly reviewed by the Best Doctors expert, one of the top 5% of physicians in over 450 subspecialties of medicine, prior to being shared with the member and their treating oncologist. IBM announced in October that it would offer this benefit to its own employees beginning in 2017. The benefit went live as of January 1.
“Employers now have a unique opportunity to stand with their valuable employees and family members as they battle cancer. IBM Watson and Best Doctors have joined together to arm patients and their treating oncologists with the latest knowledge to make difficult decisions with even more clarity,”said Kyu Rhee, MD, Chief Health Officer, IBM Watson Health.
The Watson services provided through Best Doctors will include Watson for Oncology, Watson Genomics from Quest Diagnostics, and Watson for Clinical Trial Matching. Watson for Oncology provides clinicians with weighted evidence-based treatment recommendations and up to date supporting medical literature references. Watson for Clinical Trial Matching helps clinicians match eligible patients with relevant clinical trials. Watson for Genomics analyzes the genomic profile from a patient’s tumor and provides clinicians information about potential cancer-causing mutations, providing insights on targeted therapies.
About Best Doctors, Inc.:
Founded in 1989 by Harvard Medical School physicians, Best Doctors is a medical information services company that connects individuals facing difficult medical treatment decisions with the best doctors, ranked by impartial peer review in over 450 subspecialties of medicine, to review their diagnosis and treatment plans. Best Doctors has grown to over 40 million members worldwide utilizing access to the brightest minds in medicine, analytics and technology to deliver improved health outcomes while reducing costs. For further information, visit Best Doctors at www.bestdoctors.com.To schedule an interview with a member of the Best Doctors Executive Team, contact Justin Joseph at Ph: 617.359.5522 or [email protected].
About IBM Watson Health
Watson is the first commercially available cognitive computing capability representing a new era in computing. The system, delivered through the cloud, analyzes high volumes of data, understands complex questions posed in natural language, and proposes evidence-based answers. Watson continuously learns, gaining in value and knowledge over time, from previous interactions. In April 2015, the company launched IBM Watson Health and the Watson Health Cloud platform. The new unit will help improve the ability of doctors, researchers and insurers to innovate by surfacing insights from the massive amount of personal health data being created and shared daily. The Watson Health Cloud can mask patient identities and allow for information to be shared and combined with a dynamic and constantly growing aggregated view of clinical, research and social health data. For more information on IBM Watson, visit: ibm.com/watson. For more information on IBM Watson Health, visit: ibm.com/watsonhealth.