Only two years after appearing on the game show Jeopardy! IBM’s Watson supercomputer is making startling progress in advancing the future of health care. In the past week, three new Watson-related “cognitive” technologies have been unveiled.(Two at the Cleveland Clinic and one at The Anderson Cancer Center in Dallas.) “WatsonPaths” incorporates feedback from the physician…

Twenty-five years ago, 20 megabytes of storage cost approximately $800. Today, Google and a handful of other cloud-based storage providers offer 100-times as much storage for free. Fifteen years ago, the idea that a world-class encyclopedia could be created and maintained by free labor would have seemed impossible. Today, Wikipedia is routinely access by millions…

In addition to being a powerful teaching tool, Google Glass allows surgeons to pull up old x-rays and patient records during surgery as well as consult live with other specialists during the operation. This two-minute video from a recent operation performed at Ohio State University is impressive–and instructive about where the future is headed:

At a recent healthcare event, I shared the stage with Dr. Richard Migliori, Executive Vice president of Health Services at United Health Group and, in his opening keynote presentation, he identified six factors driving higher-than-necessary health care costs: 1. Unnecessary services 2. The inefficient delivery of services 3. Price disparities 4. Excessive administration costs 5….

In its annual “5 in 5” prediction, IBM says that by 2017, we will see the rise of cognitive computers — machines that can experience the world in a manner comparable to five senses. The video at the bottom of this post provides a brief description of “the rise of cognitive computing” but here are…

#1. First Heart A-Hack Victim. In January, an Arizona socialite will be charged with murder after it was uncovered she hired a former disgruntled employee of a leading medical device firm to hack into her cheating husband’s pacemaker and deliver a lethal shock to his heart. Shares of the company’s stock will plummet on the…

Related Posts: Ten Future Health Care Trends

“I have observed that not the man who hopes when others despair, but the man who despairs when others hope, is admired by a large class of persons as a sage.” –John Stuart Mill I recently finished reading Matt Ridley’s excellent book, The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves. The timing couldn’t have been better because…

As computers become ever more powerful, it’s difficult for some people to comprehend what will soon be possible. For example, after IBM’s Watson supercomputer defeated Jeopardy’s top two human champions, it might not have been obvious how the same technology would soon be helping doctors make better, faster, more affordable and more accurate cancer diagnosis….