Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Supercomputer Watson Gave Erroneous And Unsafe Cancer Treatment Advice For Patients
Internal IBM documents show that its Watson supercomputer often spit out erroneous cancer treatment advice and that company medical specialists and customers identified 鈥渕ultiple examples of unsafe and incorrect treatment recommendations鈥 as IBM was promoting the product to hospitals and physicians around the world. The documents 鈥 slide decks presented last summer by IBM Watson Health鈥檚 deputy chief health officer 鈥 largely blame the problems on the training of Watson by IBM engineers and doctors at the renowned Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. The software was drilled with a small number of 鈥渟ynthetic鈥 cancer cases, or hypothetical patients, rather than real patient data. Recommendations were based on the expertise of a few specialists for each cancer type, the documents say, instead of 鈥済uidelines or evidence.鈥 (Ross and Swetlitz, 7/25)
In other health technology news聽鈥
Click Therapeutics, based in New York, announced Monday that Sanofi (SNY) Ventures would be providing $17 million in funding, in exchange for equity in the company and a seat on its board. In April,聽Pear Therapeutics and Sandoz, a division of Novartis (NVS), established a partnership to commercialize their prescription app for substance abuse, which received FDA clearance in September after going through the agency鈥檚 digital health pre-certification program. And Akili Interactive closed a $55 million Series C funding round that included Merck鈥檚 (MRK) corporate venture capital fund in May. (Sheridan, 7/25)