IBM and Metropolitan Health have deployed the first commercial application of Watson in Africa.
Watson is an artificially intelligent computer system capable of answering questions posed in natural language.
By tapping into Watson, Metropolitan Health aims to transform health advisory services to its customers. It believes this is a significant move to enhance and personalise health services in SA, as well as drive outcomes-based services to citizens on the African continent.
Metropolitan Health, a business unit of the JSE-listed MMI Holdings, provides administration, managed care and wellness services to more than 20 medical schemes or funds, covering millions of lives across SA.
Globally, Watson's maiden commercial deployment in in healthcare was in 2013 when IBM partnered with the US' Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and WellPoint to employ Watson to help doctors treat lung cancer patients.
Vince Kasten, financial services executive partner for IBM Global Business Services, Middle East and Africa, says IBM has made substantial progress in its commercialisation efforts with Watson, since the computer system won the US TV quiz show, Jeopardy.
"Watson is now a cloud service - it's also smaller, faster and smarter and has shrunk from the size of a master bedroom to the size of three pizza boxes," says Kasten. "Watson is busy at work as the ultimate assistant helping professionals in industries including healthcare, retail and banking discover intelligence on big data, allowing them to make informed evidence-based decisions for advanced outcomes."
Dylan Garnett, CEO of Metropolitan Health, says health technology plays a critical role in connecting the access-affordability-outcomes priorities for better health services. "IBM Watson and cognitive computing are helping us do more than simply fix basic breakdowns in treatment paths; we're 'leapfrogging' to deliver a market leading health outcome to the public. We intend to transform every customer interaction with insightful data and deliver the best personalised services and care available."
According to Kasten, the IBM Watson Engagement Advisor is being configured, trained and introduced into the Metropolitan Health customer services environment, where more than 12 million client interactions are handled each year.
Watson will work as a "virtual coach" assisting customer service agents with enquiries, he explains, adding the system can sift through the equivalent of about one million books - or roughly 200 million pages of data - and analyse this information to provide precise responses in less than three seconds.
Customer service agents will now be able to use Watson's ability to rapidly sift through enormous amounts of information, analyse it, and supply evidence-based responses to questions, providing more precise and comprehensive information to customers, he says. This will significantly enhance the consistency of responses, as well as reduce the response time.
"We believe Watson will enable our customer service agents to make better decisions, ultimately driving better health outcomes for the public," says Garnett.
According to Gartner, says Kasten, smart machines will be the most disruptive change ever brought about by information technology, and can make people more effective, empowering them to do "the impossible".
"Watson is no longer a single computer. Watson is now delivered as a cloud service. It can scale up or down to any size that is needed," he concludes.
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