Collaboration of Mayo Clinic and IBM Cognitive Computer Devised to Improve Clinical Trial Research

The Mayo Clinic (Rochester, MN, USA) and IBM (Armonk, NY, USA) recently announced plans to pilot Watson, the IBM cognitive computer, to match patients more rapidly with suitable clinical trials.

A proof-of-concept phase is currently ongoing, with the intent to introduce it into clinical use in early 2015. “In an area like cancer, where time is of the essence, the speed and accuracy that Watson offers will allow us to develop an individualized treatment plan more efficiently so we can deliver exactly the care that the patient needs,” stated Steven Alberts, MD, chair of medical oncology at Mayo Clinic. The researchers hope the increased speed also will speed new discoveries.

Clinical trials provide patients with access to new and emerging treatments; however, enrolling participants in trials is one of the more problematic areas of clinical research. Currently it is done manually, with clinical coordinators sifting through patient records and conditions, trying to correlate them with the requirements of a given study protocol. At any given time, Mayo Clinic is conducting over 8,000 human studies in addition to the 170,000 that are ongoing worldwide. Watson’s cognitive computing ability will help sift through available Mayo clinical trials and ensure that more patients are effectively and consistently matched with promising clinical trial options.

“With shorter times from initiation to completion of trials, our research teams will have the capacity for deeper, more complete investigations,” said Nicholas LaRusso, MD, a Mayo Clinic gastroenterologist and the project lead for the Mayo-IBM Watson collaboration. “Coupled with increased accuracy, we will be able to develop, refine, and improve new and better techniques in medicine at a higher level.”

This version of Watson will be expressly designed for Mayo Clinic. As it progresses in its tasks and matures through this collaboration, it will learn more about the clinical trials matching process, become even more efficient and likely more generalizable. The Watson computer also may help locate patients for hard-to-fill trials, such as those involving rare diseases.

Many clinical trials at Mayo Clinic and elsewhere are not completed due to lack of sufficient enrollment. Enrollment in general could be increased by the Watson project. In spite of well-organized efforts, even at Mayo Clinic, only 5% of patients take part in studies. In the United States, the rate is even lower, at 3%. Mayo hopes to raise clinical trial involvement to include up to 10% of its patients. Researchers say the higher participation also should improve the quality of research outcomes.

“Using Watson’s cognitive computing capabilities, Mayo Clinic can consistently offer more cutting-edge medical options to patients and conclude trials faster,” said Mike Rhodin, senior vice president, IBM Watson Group. “Ultimately, this effort will also help advance scientific discoveries into promising new forms of care that clinicians can use to treat all patients.”

To make sure that Watson has the required know-how to help with clinical trial matching, Mayo specialists are working with IBM to expand Watson’s body of knowledge to include all clinical trials at Mayo Clinic and in public databases, such as ClinicalTrials dot gov. The new Watson system is being trained to examine patient records and clinical trial criteria to determine appropriate matches for patients.

Mayo and IBM are deliberating on other applications for Watson in the future.

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