The 5,500 bed Manipal Hospitals will adopt Watson for Oncology, a cognitive computing platform trained by Memorial Sloan-Kettering that analyzes data to identify evidence-based personalized treatment options.

Over 200,000 cancer cases that access Manipal facilities annually for treatment will now be offered an affordable and low cost personalized treatment plan with IBM’s Watson Cognitive Computing platform. This is a maiden deployment of Watson in India and the first effort to transform healthcare. Manipal will commission this technology in June 2016 to understand patient conditions and formulate treatment for lung, breast and colorectal cancers.

Watson for Oncology was developed by IBM in concert with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK), one of the world’s leading cancer centers. To date, Watson for Oncology has ingested nearly 15 million pages of medical content, including over 200 medical textbooks and 300 medical journals.

In the first phase of the implementation in June 2016, we will be able to address 40 percent of cancers which will be followed by 60 percent and 90 percent of cancers manifesting in India, Dr Ajay Bakshi, managing director & CEO, Manipal Hospitals said at a press conclave.

The disease assessment and therapy will be provided in 2 minutes as against the current two hours. Therefore, we view this as the biggest transformation in cancer care in India. Watson will now interface seamlessly into the Manipal Hospital’s existing electronic medical record (EMR) via the SAAS (software as a service) model. This can be accessible across its facilities at Bengaluru, KMC Mangaluru-Manipal, Vijayawada, Goa and Delhi, he added.

In 2015, 44,000 oncology research papers have been published globally which amounts to nearly 122 new papers published every day. Clinicians using Watson for Oncology explore treatment options, analyze information and gather evidence specific to patients’ needs. The Watson’s machine learning capability enables continuously learning about oncology over time, and doctors have access to peer reviewed studies, clinical guidelines and expert perspectives.

“Now Manipal is an addition to hospitals and research institutes globally, including MD Anderson and Bumrungrad International Hospital, Thailand using Watson to transform cancer care,” said Robert S Merkel, partner and vice president,  IBM Watson Health.

According to WHO, India accounts for 6.8 lakh cancer patients annually and the condition is the second highest cause of fatality after heart diseases. India sees one million new cancer cases annually this is expected to rise 5-fold by 2020. Further, there is a huge shortfall of oncologists, surgical oncologists and radiation therapists. The ratio of oncologists to cancer patients is about 1:1600 compared to 1:100 in the US.

“We are at an inflection point in India regarding cancer care, driven by the increasing patients and fewer oncologists. These challenges are amplified by rapid advances in personalized medicine. All these factors compelled us to consider high technology-based solution to deliver unit economics at a scale,” said Dr Bakshi.

“With IBM’s Watson for Oncology, we can combine our clinicians’ expertise across various types of cancers with a cognitive computing solution informed by expert training from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center,” said Dr Sudarshan Ballal, chairman, Manipal Hospitals.

“With IBM Watson we are bringing cognitive computing to the healthcare ecosystem to help deliver greater value to patients in India,” said Vanitha Narayanan, managing director, IBM India.