IBM Watson Health announces new general manager, products, partnerships

Michael Walter | | Radiology Business | Imaging Informatics

IBM made several big announcements about the future of IBM Watson Health last week, building on the momentum it gained from acquiring Merge Healthcare back in August.

First, Deborah DiSanzo was named the general manager of the company’s business unit. DiSanzo has over 30 years of healthcare experience, including her time as the CEO of Philips Healthcare. DiSanzo left Philips in 2014.

The company also announced two of its newest products, IBM Watson Health Cloud for Life Sciences Compliance and IBM Watson Care Manager.

IBM Watson Health Cloud for Life Sciences Compliance is designed to assist biomedical companies with bringing their medical innovations to the market as efficiently as possible. IBM Watson Care Manager allows those in the healthcare industry to build personalized patient engagement programs, combining capabilities from Watson Health with those from two Apple products, HealthKit and ResearchKit.

IBM Watson Health is also now working with Boston Children’s Hospital, Columbia University, ICON plc, Sage Bionetworks and Teva Pharmaceuticals on various collaborations, the company announced.

"Watson Health is driving a new era of technology-driven health, enabling entrepreneurs and industry leaders to address diverse needs, spanning the earliest stages of research all the way through to clinical care and population health through to consumer wellness,” Mike Rhodin, IBM Watson Group senior vice president, said in a statement. “The variety of new partners and use cases underscores the flexibility and scalability of the IBM Watson Health Cloud to help leaders rapidly advance the state of the art in health and wellness. Further, IBM Watson Health is building for scale, with partners, offerings and now a worldwide headquarters designed to help global organizations meet the world’s pressing health needs.”

IBM launched IBM Watson Health back in April.

Michael Walter
Michael Walter, Managing Editor

Michael has more than 18 years of experience as a professional writer and editor. He has written at length about cardiology, radiology, artificial intelligence and other key healthcare topics.

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