MedCityNews: IBM Dumps IBM WATSON, Gets "Salvage Value"

I wrote two blogs on AI in radiology and pathology so far in 2022, focused on very specific achievements (here, here).

Here's a story that didn't get the headlines it might have.  MedCity reports that "IBM is dumping" IBM WATSON, its much-touted, formerly much-hyped program, and "for salvage value," here.   See also a story at Quartz, "What Went Wrong?" here.   Similarly, NYT last summer here.  On the sale, some additional quotes and links here.

AI has to be approached carefully; see a current JAMA article discussing problems with the historical roll-out in the past decade of computer assisted detection in mammography - here.   

On the Other Hand

On the other hand - in focused domains, there are really interesting things going on.  

See an article on an AI-based improvement in measuring PDL1 and tumor infiltrating lymphocytes, here.  And see a MedCity article on digital pathology companies collaborating with major health centers toward focused goals, here.

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Memory Lane

In 2010, GE bought Clarient, a specialty pathology lab, here.   One area of major investments by GE was "MultiOmyx" multi antigen slide staining (restaining) technology (here).  I don't think it ever went very far commercially, but, NeoGenomics does have a webpage about MultiOmyx here, and reported a number of 2021 abstracts.  WSJ labeled Clarient a $587M acquisition in 2010 (here).  The 2015 sale to NeoGenomics was reported at $275M.   However, it was also reported at the time that GE was retaining 32% of Clarient, suggesting the sale represented 68% of the market value.    As I was writing this, Neogenomics abruptly sank 30% on March 29, 2022 (here).