The technologies in IBM’s Watson used for drug research

December 8, 2011

The ingredients that went into Watson, including speech recognition, machine learning, natural-language processing, data mining and ultra-fast in-memory computer hardware, are steadily finding their way into IBM products, New York Times Bits reports.

For example, WellPoint, the big health insurer, is trying out a system that uses Watson-style software to reduce redundant medical tests.

As a byproduct of its research, IBM is also adding to a vast, searchable chemical database housed by the National Institutes of Health. IBM is contributing more than 2.4 million chemical compounds extracted from 4.7 million patents and 11 million biomedical journal extracts from 1976 to 2000.

The latest entry is being announced on Thursday, IBM’s Strategic Intellectual Property Insight Platform. It uses data mining, natural-language processing and analytics to pore through millions of patent filings and biomedical journals to look for chemical compounds used in drug discovery.