IBM’s artificial intelligence engine, Watson, is teaming up with a start-up called Pathway Genomics to create one of the most detailed and personalized health-advice apps we have seen yet.
Pathway Genomics sequences and analyzes your DNA; Watson will make it possible for the app to understand what users are asking. Watson, which won Jeopardy when IBM first introduced it, is able to read and understand information online. As a result, according to this article, it should be able to do things like “read” published medical literature to help answer users’ questions.
What does this mean for you and me?
Well, the app will not be ready until mid-2015, according to a blog post by Pathway chief medical officer Michael Nova. Furthermore, there aren’t any pricing details available yet, although Nova said that it would entail a “small monthly fee.”
Image Source: JOHN MACDOUGALL
There’s also the question of how well it will function– analyzing genetic test results and patient history in order to provide health advice is complex and isn’t always easy to interpret. Until now, we’ve had doctors and genetic counselors who do just that; we’ll have to see how a computer program compares.
Finally, there’s the legal issue: as a piece of technology, Watson doesn’t have a doctor’s license (yet!). Last year, the U.S. FDA prevented the genetics-reading company 23andMe from further giving out health diagnoses, so it will be interesting to see how much information the IBM-Pathway app will have available.
Feature Image Source: imbphoto24
