IBM's Watson Health, American Diabetes Association partner on cognitive apps, analytics

IBM's Watson Health and the American Diabetes Association have outlined a multi-year partnership to analyze clinical and research data to better manage diabetes.

The partnership was outlined at the American Diabetes Association's (ADA) annual scientific powwow in New Orleans. The goal is to use data to build cognitive applications for doctors, researchers and patients.

Watson Health and the ADA have been working together to analyze 300,000 patient records to model outcomes and the disease as well as manage care.

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According to IBM, Watson's APIs have been used in the field for about two years.

Meanwhile, IBM outlined the next step for its cognitive app that was previewed in January. Watson Health is working with Novo Nordisk, Medtronic and CVS Health to build apps for people with diabetes.

Among the key partnership nuggets:

• Medtronic and Watson Health outlined a cognitive app called Sugarwise. The app, which is in its final beta, analyzes glucose monitor data to detect patterns. Sugarwise aims to be a daily assistant for people with diabetes. The app will see a limited release in September 2016. Medtronic and Watson Health are working on systems that would automatically adjust insulin dosage in Medtronic pumps.
• Digital health startup HelpAround is building Watson's personality and tone analyzer into its platform that response to questions. That platform can be customized for diabetes care.
• IBM is working with Israel's third largest HMO, HMO Maccabi, to build models and tools to manage diabetes. The goal is to use machine learning to personalize treatment by analyzing patient records.

The goal for IBM is to train Watson so it can understand diabetes data and make recommendations. Watson's repository will include 66 years of data, ADA's information about wellness, support groups, management and education.

Ultimately, the Watson and ADA collaboration will lead to a cloud data and insights service that can be used by the medical ecosystem to find patterns as well as therapies.