
MD Anderson Cancer Research Abandons Collaboration with IBM Watson - AlexCoventry
https://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewherper/2017/02/19/md-anderson-benches-ibm-watson-in-setback-for-artificial-intelligence-in-medicine/#55c442383774
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eigenman
This doesn't at all surprise me. I used to work at Anderson in the Leukemia
department, brought on to analyze their "big data." They wanted to know which
cells were indicative of relapse but were only able to provide data on two
patients who each received different treatments. Despite my best efforts, I
could not convince the MDs who run the show to obtain more (and better) data
to even begin to apply machine learning. They had this intrenched opinion that
math was something that got sprinkled over your data and turned rubbish into
Science papers. I wouldn't be surprised if IBM encountered the same problem.

Moreover, this whole story is in line with my sense of the institutional
culture. There is a lot of me-too science that goes on there, repeating better
work at more prestigious universities. I bet when my bosses heard the pitch
from IBM, they thought "this is my chance to compete with Stanford." However,
no thought was given to the data that would feed into this system as evidenced
by the changes of scope and infrastructure.

~~~
rscho
As an MD, and therefore looking at that from the other side of the fence, I
totally agree. Medical research as a field has become profoundly dishonest
since the "publish or perish" principle has become the rule also applied to
clinical hierarchical advancement.

People with no scientific education (and clinical medicine is definitely not
science) should be forbidden to lead scientific projects!

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csours
>It seems “very strange” that the IT department was bypassed, and “very
unusual” that payments were not based on measurable deliverables, says John
Halamka, the chief information officer at Beth Israel Deaconness Medical
Center in Boston. He also notes that payments seem to have been made from
donations that had not yet been received.

...

But inside the University of Texas, the project was apparently seen as one
that missed deadlines and didn’t deliver. The audit notes that the focus of
the project was changed several times, first focusing on one type of leukemia,
then another, then lung cancer. The initial plan was to test out the product
out in pilots at two other hospitals. That never happened.

MD Anderson changed the software it uses for managing electronic medical
records, switching to a system made by Epic Systems of Madison, Wis. It has
blamed this new system for a $405 million drop in its net income. According to
the audit report, the Watson product doesn’t work with the new Epic System,
and must be revamped in order to be re-tested. The information in the MD-
Anderson/Watson product is also now out of date.

\---

1\. Requirements changes kill projects.

2\. Key stakeholders not being on board kill projects.

3\. Big system changes kill projects.

\---

IBM has issues for sure, but I wouldn't expect a favorable outcome for anyone
given these headwinds.

Caveat, we don't know how many of these issues were exacerbated/caused by IBM.

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aabajian
People in the AI community have spoken out against Watson because it's more
marketing than tech. Some feared that it was setting machine learning / AI up
on a pedestal that would give false hopes. It looks like those fears are now
realized. I hope this doesn't further entrench naysayers against machine
learning in medicine. Watson was a rules-based system from the get go and (to
my knowledge) only recently started adding deep learning.

~~~
transcranial
IBM bought Merge Healthcare for $1B, presumably to gain access to vast amounts
of their imaging data. Would love to see some developments on the deep
learning front from them, but sadly I doubt it'll ever break through the fog
of marketing/PR BS that always seems to surround Watson.

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manicdee
TL;DR: the oncology part of the Watson project appeared to be working fine.
The integration with MD Anderson BSS/OSS systems was the killer, especially
since MD Anderson changed horses mid stream.

Integration with Business Support Systems and Operational Support Systems is
the part where the customers make their raw data available to Watson, and
Watson provides analyses/diagnoses in return. This data will usually arrive in
proprietary formats and need to be delivered in proprietary formats, meaning
integration is a bespoke operation for each customer, and will need to be done
from scratch if the customer changes BSS in the meantime.

~~~
Fomite
Not being able to integrate with Epic well is, at this point in healthcare IT,
a pretty big problem IBM will need to fix.

------
Para2016
"The disclosure comes at an uncomfortable moment for IBM. Tomorrow, the
company’s chief executive, Ginni Rometty, will make a presentation to a giant
health information technology conference detailing the progress Watson has
made in health care, and announcing the launch of new products for managing
medical images and making sure hospitals deliver value for the money, as well
as new partnerships with healthcare systems. The end of the MD Anderson
collaboration looks bad."

About 18 months ago IBM acquired a massive amount of medical imaging.
[http://www.healthdatamanagement.com/news/ibm-
completes-1b-ac...](http://www.healthdatamanagement.com/news/ibm-
completes-1b-acquisition-of-merge-healthcare)

MD Anderson is in a bit of controversy regarding how they order imaging (and
other treatments) and insurance companies are deciding not to reimburse care
at MDA. [http://blog.takecommandhealth.com/md-anderson-health-
insuran...](http://blog.takecommandhealth.com/md-anderson-health-insurance/)

Perhaps this has not been a total research failure but a political move.
Watson Healthcare may increase the efficiency of imagine analysis among
competitors of MDA. Imaging is one of the biggest revenue generators for a
hospital.

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mathattack
Given that a mismanaged IT project was blamed for a 400+ million earnings
drop, it's not a stretch to see other technology initiatives failing.

[http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/finance/md-anderson-
poi...](http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/finance/md-anderson-points-to-
epic-implementation-for-77-drop-in-adjusted-income.html)

