• Important Step for Better Care and More Efficiency
• First Project Phase at the Centre for Rare Diseases at the University Hospital in Marburg

In future RHÖN-KLINIKUM AG will cooperate with IBM in order to optimise patient management. The concept of the joint project is to ensure data-assisted patient navigation providing the best possible healthcare at the pre-clinical stage already and subsequently moving into either the in patient or out-patient treatment. Inappropriate patient referrals which cost both time and money can therefore be avoided. Better use of patient data can also help in providing further recommendations for treatment.

IBM will contribute innovative “cognitive computing” technology to this joint project. Cognitive systems can understand natural languages, draw logical conclusions and are capable of learning. It is therefore possible to interpret data in a context and achieve new insights – an important aptitude for personalised patient treatment as well as diagnostic and therapeutic recommendations, all of which are becoming more and more IT-assisted. With “IBM Watson” the IBM company has already developed a leading technology platform for cognitive computing. In a first phase a cognitive assistance system will be installed at the “Centre for Undiagnosed and Rare Diseases” at the university hospital in Marburg to help in the very work-intensive processing of such medical cases. The IBM Research Centre at Zurich will be responsible for the technological management of the project.

As an operator of hospitals providing maximum medical care with a link to university hospitals RHÖN-KLINIKUM AG will provide the required specialist information and medical knowledge for the joint project and also incorporate its own IT systems as well as be responsible for data protection regulations being observed.

The knowledge obtained from the first project phase at the university hospital in Marburg will then be analysed and used for other hospitals in the corporate group.