The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has signed a $6 million contract with IBM to use its superbrain Watson to help combat post-traumatic stress disorder, according to the Washington Post.
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The software system will be installed at the VA data center in Austin. According to the Post:
Watson is designed to crunch large volumes of medical literature, clinical data and personal electronic medical records to suggest the treatment options it deems most appropriate for individual patients. Physicians can type questions in natural language, and Watson spits out a series of options, ranked by its confidence in each method's success.
The software is already in use in Houston as part of M.D. Anderson's Moonshots program, to try to reduce death rates in eight types of cancer. Memorial Sloan-KetteringCancer Center in New York uses it for cancer research as well. The Austin VA will be the third facility to employ Watson for medical use.
The VA's full contract will be about $16 million.
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Here is some background on IBM's strategy:
Formed in January of last year, IBM's Watson Group has been aggressively marketing the cognitive computing system to various industries — as a financial advisor, personal shopper, and culinary assistant, among others. The unit is funded by a $1 billion investment from the company.
Watson is famous for defeating human champions on "Jeopardy!"
