Opinion: IBM's Watson could be healthcare game changer

It was an amazing feat when Watson, IBM's "cognitive"—listening, "thinking" and learning—computing platform handily beat two Jeopardy grand champions in February 2011, but it also left us wanting to know if, when and how the technology would be used in the real world. The world got its first glimpse of Watson at work in a commercial setting on Friday when IBM announced the release of three new health care decision-support applications. The three new applications include one for recommending cancer treatment options and two for reviewing and authorizing treatments and related health insurance claims.