VA, IBM Watson Health extend precision cancer partnership to help veterans

The Department of Veterans Affairs and IBM Watson Health have announced a one-year extension to an ongoing public-private partnership applying the AI company’s technology to genomic data for cancer therapy. The precision oncology collaboration has so far assisted the treatment of more than 2,700 veterans, according to a statement, although the original agreement in 2016 had proposed the lofty goal of treating 10,000 patients. Dr. Michael Kelley, professor of medicine at Duke University and the national program director for oncology at the VA, admitted that the initial benchmark was a bit ambitious, but is more attainable now that the two partners have laid a groundwork for future patients.