KPJ Healthcare to use AI for better oncology treatment; adopts Watson for Oncology to aid doctors in managing cancer

Cancer is now the third most common cause of death among Malaysians at 14%, following respiratory and circulatory diseases. Women have a higher risk of cancer with the most common being breast cancer. To tackle this rising issue, KPJ Healthcare Berhad announced their adoption of IBM’s Watson for Oncology trained by Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) to help doctors deliver better treatment options for patients.

KPJ will be the first private healthcare provider to adopt Watson for Oncology at its five specialist hospitals namely KPJ Damansara Specialist Hospital (KPJ Damansara), KPJ Ampang Puteri Specialist Hospital (KPJ Ampang Puteri), KPJ Johor Specialist Hospital (KPJ Johor), KPJ Ipoh Specialist Hospital (KPJ Ipoh) and KPJ Sabah Specialist Hospital (KPJ Sabah).

Watson for Oncology was developed by IBM in collaboration with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. It summarizes important medical attributes of a patient and provide studies that pertain to the patient’s condition for the oncologist to consider. This will help oncologists decide on better treatment plans with the large library of curated information available at Watson for Oncology’s disposal, a repository of more than 300 medical journals, more than 200 textbooks, and nearly 15 million pages of text to provide insights about different treatment options.

Watson for Oncology is now able to assist clinicians in developing treatment plans for breast, lung, colorectal, cervical, ovarian, gastric, prostate and bladder cancers.

Pokdepinion: This is the culmination of two of my interests, healthcare and tech. I am very interested to see how this technology improves treatment of cancer in Malaysia.