March 23, 2012 12:03 am EDT

Watson lends a helping hand to cancer research, partners with Memorial Sloan-Kettering

Supercomputers at the forefront of medical practice? The notion is by no means a stretch of the imagination. Yet, research of this kind mostly goes unnoticed -- that is, unless the computational wizardry handholding these advancements belongs to Jeopardy!'s AI king. That's right, Watson, IBM's bold-face named powerhouse of silicon wizardry, will be made available as a development tool for oncologists at Memorial Sloan-Kettering to deliver "individualized cancer diagnostic and treatment recommendations" derived from the center's case note database. Drawing upon that raw processing power, field practitioners will purportedly have access to a wealth of the latest therapeutic advances which would, normally, take too long to spread outside of specialized facilities. The agreement is not the first of its kind, as this time last year IBM had announced a similar partnership with Columbia University, although no further news has come from that union. MSKCC, for its part, does have concrete plans to move its small pilot program forward, with a target launch set for later this year and plans to expand the project's reach by end of 2013. Jump past the break for the official presser.

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Watson lends a helping hand to cancer research, partners with Memorial Sloan-Kettering originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 22 Mar 2012 20:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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