The newly-announced alliance between Siemens Healthineers and IBM Watson Health marks the start of a five-year, technology-focused, global initiative to help hospitals, doctors and other care providers with population health management. And with dramatic changes in the way health care is paid for, digitization of health records and patient outcome expectations, meaningful analytics are increasingly important. The partnership between IBM and Siemens seeks to provide a larger share of value-based care to patients around the world.
The global reach of Siemens Healthineers paired with the volume and types of data IBM Watson Health can process will help providers achieve better results for their patients. This may be especially true with chronic and costly conditions.
As the health care industry around the world shifts from volume-based to value-based care, population management becomes essential — not to mention lucrative.
An example of how this relationship will work from the companies press release: Siemens Healthineers have access to IBM Watson Care Manager, a new cognitive solution from IBM designed to help providers and patients to work together to support individual health. IBM Watson Care Manager integrates disparate types of clinical and individual data and applies cognitive analysis to draw out insights for nurses and other care managers so they can closely monitor and counsel individuals with chronic conditions.
Deborah DiSanso, general manager for IBM Watson Health distilled the situation by stating, “We are at an unprecedented time in health care. Mature and developing markets are increasingly focused on how patient outcomes are optimized, quality is standardized among individuals and across populations and costs are reduced.”
