CVS (CVS) and IBM (IBM) are teaming up to help manage patients’ health with the Watson AI.
IBM will use CVS patient information to alert health officials of potential problems that could occur in the person’s future. This includes patients of its pharmacies, Minute Clinic and employer clients. The deal also works out well for IBM as it allows Watson to get into the healthcare field, which is seeing growth in tracking health, reports Forbes.
“The capabilities of the IBM Watson Health Cloud, when coupled with CVS Health’s insights into medical utilization and patient behavior, could prove transformative for the industry,” Mike Rhodin, senior vice president at IBM Watson, told Forbes. “Improving care for people with chronic conditions supports IBM’s commitment to make big plays that advance the health and well-being of the global community.”
CVS operates 7,600 drugstores across the United States. It also has more than 1,00 walk-in clinics and over 70 million members of benefit plans. The large pool of data available to Watson could result in it offering strong results for monitoring patients’ health issues, TechCrunch notes.
