IBM’s cognitive computing system Watson has already been used in recent years in health projects. In recent days, IBM announced a new commitment in this field with the creation of the business unit Watson Health devoted to developing solutions to improve the quality and effectiveness of health care by customizing it to individual needs.

The IBM Watson system generally works in a cloud so IBM created the Watson Health Cloud platform to collect and safely manage health information on users needed to physicians but also to insurance companies. This will allow to have all the data needed for a diagnosis and to find individual healthcare solutions.

Thanks to new technologies, today it’s possible to collect huge amounts of information on a person’s health. It’s estimated that by using various types of equipment, in the near future the average person will generate more than one million gigabytes of data related to health in the course of his or her life. The project Watson Health has the purpose of managing in a useful manner such huge amounts of information.

The IBM Watson system can analyze huge amounts of data in very little time and can be trained to recognize the significant data relating to the health of a person. In this project, IBM will work with partners of the highest profile such as Appe, Johnson & Johnson and Medtronic.

Apple has been working for some time to the application development systems related to the medical field ResearchKit and HealthKit. The possibility to use mobile devices to detect users’ health data omplements very well IBM’s project. In fact, it will be possible to create applications that integrate tehm into Watson Health Cloud.

The partnership between Johnson & Johnson and IBM aims to use advanced analysis of the data collected in Watson Health Cloud to develop custom solutions related to people’s health. The collaboration with Apple will also be used to create new applications for mobile devices connected to the health field.

Medtronic is a leader in the field of medical technology and its collaboration with IBM will cover in particular the treatment of diabetes. The aim is to use the Watson Health Cloud platform to develop personalized treatments for people with diabetes based on the analysis of the data collected.

In recent days, IBM also announced the acquisition of Explorys and Phytel, two companies specializing in software in the medical and health care field. This will improve the ability to analyze data collected in Watson Health Cloud to provide better solutions.

The new business unit will encompass Smarter Care and Social Programs, created a few years ago after the acquisition of Curam Software, a provider of information technology solutions related to health and social programs. All this shows how IBM is working very seriously to the project Watson Health. The advancements in medicine and health care are potentially huge.