Elekta Taps IBM Watson Health to Bring AI to Comprehensive Oncology Field

STOCKHOLM, Jan. 31, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Elekta (EKTA-B.ST) today announced that it is collaborating with IBM Watson Health to offer Watson for Oncology with Elekta's cancer care solutions. Under the terms of a new agreement, Elekta will sell Watson for Oncology beginning in early 2018 as a clinical decision support solution paired within Elekta's digital cancer care solutions, including the MOSAIQ® Oncology Information System. Elekta intends to offer both solutions in most markets around the world including the U.S., Brazil, certain major European and Asian markets as well as India and Australia. 

Cancer is responsible for one in six deaths around the world, and each year there are more than 14 million new cancer cases worldwide.(1) As healthcare providers and systems seek to enable data-driven, evidence-based cancer care, an explosion of medical information has created both challenges and opportunities to help improve quality of care. Currently, approximately 50,000 oncology research papers are published annually,(2) and by 2020 medical information is projected to double every 73 days(3), outpacing the ability of humans to keep up with the proliferation of medical knowledge.

"Joining forces with IBM Watson Health positions Elekta as the first radiation therapy company to offer capabilities that combine conventional health information systems with artificial intelligence and cognitive cloud computing," said Richard Hausmann, CEO of Elekta. "Our goal is to bring cutting edge artificial intelligence technology to the cancer care continuum, including treatment planning, enabling evidence-based treatment recommendations for every patient regardless of where they are treated. We are excited to be working with IBM Watson Health to achieve this shared vision."

Watson for Oncology was developed by IBM in collaboration with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) in New York. It can summarize key medical attributes of a patient, and provide information to oncologists to help them deliver treatment options based on training from MSK oncologists. Watson for Oncology ranks the treatment options, linking to peer reviewed studies that have been curated by MSK. Watson for Oncology also provides a large corpus of medical literature for a physician to consider, drawing on more than 300 medical journals, more than 200 textbooks, and nearly 15 million pages of text to provide insights about different treatment options.  

"Oncologists around the world rely on MOSAIQ to support the treatment pathway, and we are eager to extend Watson for Oncology to more physicians and patients globally through Elekta's sophisticated digital oncology solutions," said Lisa Rometty, vice president of oncology and life sciences, IBM Watson Health. "We are proud to bring the evidence based clinical decision support of Watson for Oncology together with Elekta's extensive expertise in the oncology EHR and radiation therapy field."

Sources:
(1) World Health Organization, Cancer Fact Sheet: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs297/en/ 
(2) PubMed, accessed at pubmed.com
(3) Densen, Peter, Challenges and Opportunities Facing Medical Education 2011. Transactions in the American Clinical and Climatological Association. Accessed at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3116346/

For further information, please contact:
Gert van Santen, Group Vice President Corporate Communications, Elekta AB
Tel: +31-653-561-242, e-mail: gert.vansanten@elekta.com  
Time zone: CET: Central European Time

Raven Canzeri, Global Public Relations Manager
Tel: +1-770-670-2524, e-mail: raven.canzeri@elekta.com
Time zone: ET: Eastern Time

About Elekta
Elekta is proud to be the leading innovator of equipment and software used to improve, prolong and save the lives of people with cancer and brain disorders. Our advanced, effective solutions are created in collaboration with customers, and more than 6,000 hospitals worldwide rely on Elekta technology. Our treatment solutions and oncology informatics portfolios are designed to enhance the delivery of radiation therapy, radiosurgery and brachytherapy, and to drive cost efficiency in clinical workflows. Elekta employs 3,600 people around the world. Headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, Elekta is listed on NASDAQ Stockholm. www.elekta.com.

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