IBM Watson: Festival of Disruption

On October 10th, the great and good of the data industry descended on London for the Watson Summit to consider disruption and the role it has to play in business.

Intriguing lectures and discussions around changing mind-sets to help drive innovation were bookended by fascinating talks from Canadian astronaut, Chris Hadfield, and rugby legend, Mike Tindall.

This was a fascinating and thought-provoking day that brought to mind a lot of great opportunities for technology, machine learning and artificial intelligence to enhance healthcare services. Prominent examples being NHS Blood and Transport who are using Business Process Management tools to automate and optimise their processes to simplify the pathway for heart transplants; and the use of innovative cognitive computing at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital to improve patient experiences.

Are you a disrupter in dentistry? Are you willing to think differently about processes to facilitate effective patient care and make your life easier? Do you think the NHS and dental market need to do more to engage clinicians in product and service design and how do you think they can achieve this? FC