I have blogged before about Watson and how laughable it is for medicine. I said I wasn't worried in the least. Well, maybe I am. I do think that the super computer may even help in the right hands. Well, now it is in the wrong hands. WellPoint Inc., the health insurer, a major part of the Medical Axis of Evil, is going to play with it to dig into their patient database. Sure, they are saying the right things now. They won't use it to deny benefits. Maybe. However, "if a doctor veers from Watson's diagnosis or treatment recommendations, the insurer would have a clinician review the case like it currently does". Oh. So this is about controlling doctors again? I see even more phone calls from the insurance company denying my choice of treatment or medicine. OMG. Remember, the health insurance companies care only about the bottom line. This is about money and they paid a lot for the use of Watson. They need to get that money back. I predict the information will be used to eliminate some doctors who don't meet their criteria of "quality" and steer patients away from them. Now if they are bad clinicians, I get that. But what if they just have patients that are very, very sick? It will also be used to deny radiological procedures, medications and on and on. This is a super computerized denying beast. They now have created a Prior Authorization Monster. I predict another controversy in the future over this. You heard it here first.
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