Watson Goes to Work for Wellpoint

[Greenbeard]

Everyone's favorite Jeopardy!-winning supercomputer has a new gig: Wellpoint is bankrolling Watson's new career as a clinical decision support tool at Cedars-Sinai's Samuel Oschin Cancer Center:

Doctors at the Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute will be the first to use the technology, IBM said, and they will help the computer company make tweaks to the system — the first commercial application of the computer since its "Jeopardy!" debut early this year.

Watson, which can process information from 200 million pages of literature in three seconds, will provide doctors with guidance on diagnoses and treatments, IBM says.

The hope is that the technology will be able to comb through patient medical histories, medical journals and clinical trials to provide appropriate treatments, said Manoj Saxena, general manager of IBM's Watson Solutions unit.

With more and more hospitals keeping electronic records on patients, Watson represents a natural next step, said Stanford University medical information technology specialist Dr. Atul Butte, a pediatric endocrinologist.

Butte said that previous attempts to incorporate artificial intelligence technology in medicine were unsuccessful but that now may be the right time for Watson.

"I think it's a huge step forward," Butte said. "What's going to be different this time is that Watson can really take advantage of data."

 

[Mr. H.]

I'd hate to put my life in the hands of a computer that gives answers in the form of a question.

 

[Mad Scientist]

I'd hate to put my life in the hands of a computer that gives answers in the form of a question.

Alex: "Death Panels are now staffed by this Super Computer".

Contestant: "What is Watson".

 

[Political Junky]

Computerized medical records are great. Kaiser Permanente has used them for sometime and they will hopefully become common.

 

[Mad Scientist]

Computerized medical records are great. Kaiser Permanente has used them for sometime and they will hopefully become common.

Right. Because electronic medical records can never be hacked, lost, stolen or sold.

 

[Political Junky]

Computerized medical records are great. Kaiser Permanente has used them for sometime and they will hopefully become common.

Right. Because electronic medical records can never be hacked, lost, stolen or sold.

You think written records can't be stolen?
Good luck when someone treats you in an emergency without your computerized records.

 

[Greenbeard]

Most things can be lost, stolen, or sold. But EHRs open a whole new world for quality measurement and improvement. And, yes, they create new possibilities for integrating decision support tools like Watson into the work physicians do.

Last week, Rhode Island's largest insurer released the results of its recent EHR pilot:

 Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island (BCBSRI) today announced results from a multi-year pilot program designed to increase the use of electronic health records (EHRs), transform the way healthcare is delivered, improve members’ health and help moderate healthcare costs. Results of the pilot, which ultimately became the foundation of BCBSRI’s patient-centered medical home model, demonstrate clear value in using health information technology to improve quality of care. Highlights of the pilot include the following:

• Lower monthly healthcare costs that averaged between 17 and 33 percent less per member than those receiving care at non-participating practices
• Improved healthcare quality, with a 44 percent median rate of improvement in family and children’s health, 35 percent in women’s care and 24 percent in internal medicine
• Successful EHR implementations for 79 local physicians

Dr. Pablo Rodriguez, Board Chairman of the Health Care Alliance and CEO of Women’s Care, Inc. agrees: "Every provider believes that they deliver excellent care, but it wasn’t until we looked at the EHR data that we realized the reality of our profession wasn’t meeting the expectation. You can’t improve what you don’t measure, and while paper is very forgiving, software never forgets. Implementing an EHR brought the entire practice to a level of collective responsibility for the care of our patients that until this time was implied, but never measured. We are grateful for this incredible opportunity to work with BCBSRI to improve patient care in remarkable ways."

If a provider without an EHR wanted to understand if patients with diabetes were getting the right tests, for example, he or she would need to pull possibly dozens of paper patient files, search for test results and then manually compile and analyze those results. With an EHR, by contrast, the provider is able to quickly run a report on all patients with diabetes and easily identify which ones may require follow-up to ensure that they are getting the necessary testing. With the average primary care physician treating more than 2,000 patients a year, it’s easy to see how an EHR can provide doctors with greater insight into their patients’ needs and significantly increase doctors’ ability to improve quality of care.

 

[waltky]

No wonder dey consider health care a growth industry...

Outgoing WellPoint CEO made over $20M last year
Apr 2,`13 WASHINGTON (AP) -- The compensation paid to outgoing Wellpoint Inc. CEO Angela Braly last year rose 56 percent, even as the company's shares slid on lower enrollment in its Blue Cross Blue Shield health plans.

Braly, who resigned in August, received 2012 compensation valued at $20.6 million, according to an Associated Press analysis of the company's annual proxy statement. Most of the increase came from stock options. Braly, 51, became CEO in 2007. She received a $1.2 million salary last year, up slightly from $1.1 million in 2011. Her compensation included a performance-related bonus of nearly $1.4 million. More than 85 percent of Braly's compensation came from stock options and awards, which totaled $17.8 million. That total was up from about $10 million the year before. She also received $179,618 in other compensation, including $3,700 spent on security measures for her and her family due to concerns about her safety "as a result of the national health care debate," according to the proxy, which was filed Tuesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Health insurers have been criticized in recent years for churning out large profits and giving their executives big compensation hikes while the cost of insurance for many people continues to rise. WellPoint plans covers more than 36 million people. Most people may not recognize the corporate name, but they might know the Blue Cross Blue Shield brand under which the company sells policies in 14 states, including New York and California. Braly led WellPoint through several sizeable acquisitions during her tenure, including the $4.46 billion purchase of Medicaid coverage provider Amerigroup Corp., which closed after she left. Medicaid is the state-federal program that provides health coverage for needy and disabled people. Opportunities for insurers providing coverage through Medicaid are expected to grow as the health care overhaul expands starting next year.

But investors had grown frustrated with the company's performance, leading Braly to resign last August. WellPoint said July 25 that it was cutting its outlook after seeing enrollment slip. The insurer also reported that day second-quarter earnings that both fell and missed expectations. The company blamed a sluggish economy for the sliding enrollment and said medical costs came in higher than it expected in May. The insurer also took a $150-million hit in 2011 from its Medicare Advantage business, which involves privately run, subsidized versions of the government's Medicare program for the elderly and disabled people.

WellPoint wound up trumping Wall Street expectations in the final two quarters of 2012 and recorded its first quarterly, year-over-year increase in earnings since early 2011. Even so, its shares fell 8 percent last year to close 2012 at $60.92, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index rose more than 13 percent. WellPoint's 2012 earnings were nearly flat compared to 2011. The insurer earned $2.65 billion, or $8.18 per share, last year, as total revenue climbed 1.6 percent to $61.71 billion. In February, WellPoint named veteran hospital executive Joseph Swedish to replace interim CEO John Cannon. Cannon received a base salary of $744,232, plus a one-time bonus of $500,000.

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See also:

Avon CEO 2012 pay package valued at $12.9M
Apr 2,`13 -- The CEO of beauty products seller Avon Products Inc. received a compensation package valued at $12.9 million during her first year on the job.

Sheri McCoy, 54, who became CEO in April 2012, received a base salary of $831,781, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday. She received a bonus of about $1.9 million and stock awards worth nearly $9.4 million on the date they were granted. She also received a performance-based bonus of $591,025 and other compensation of $180,139. The other compensation includes perks such as financial planning and tax preparation, a car service allowance, an executive health exam, temporary housing costs and related expenses and legal fees related to her hire.

Andrea Jung, who was Avon CEO through April 2012 and executive chairman through the end of the year, received a pay package valued at $6.4 million, the same as in 2011. She received a base salary of $1.1 million and stock awards valued at $5.1 million when they were granted. She received $209, 134 in other compensation, including perks such as financial planning and tax preparation, a car lease, insurance, home security, an executive health exam, monthly parking, and a car service allowance of $96,404. In the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Avon said 2012 was "a challenging year for Avon and one of significant transition."

Avon, a direct seller of beauty products including Skin So Soft lotion and mark cosmetics, has been struggling to turnaround results at home and in emerging markets. In addition its dealing with a long-running bribery probe in China that began in 2008 and has since spread to other countries. The company added that even though 2012 results were "disappointing," McCoy has established a clear turnaround strategy, aimed at achieving mid-single digit percentage revenue growth and $400 million in cost savings by 2016.

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