Not surprising. Many “tech” companies enter the field with arrogance, thinking of course they can do health better. They unfortunately often have no comprehension of the regulatory regimes for the markets they enter and therefore the projects are doomed to failure before they start.
IBM Watson Health slashes workforce
71–79 of 79 posts
Re: IBM Watson Health slashes workforce
#72IBM seems expert at stealth layoffs. Possibly to avoid lawsuits?
https://www.propublica.org/article/federal-watchdog-launches...
Re: IBM Watson Health slashes workforce
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
It seems Watson was founded on the false premise that lots of hand coded things could be called an “AI”. It’s the victim of its own winter, because it was never going to live up to its own hype.
Yeah I kinda remember reading it being accused of being vaporware. Then I googled "Watson vaporware" and got the following [1]. Definitely think they are in that part of the hype cycle. [1] https://www.technologyreview.com/s/607965/a-reality-check-fo... edit: "trough of disillusionment" is what I was looking for
Interesting article, but I'd bet a big part of the reason physicians don't know it's that do much is dependent upon information that lives "out of the system".
How much time will a patient spend on rehab, and will they actually perform the exercises effectively? What's their diet like, not just calories in but in terms of individual nutrients? How active is their lifestyle?
Recovery time seems like something that should be knowable by educated doctors, but the best poker player in the world can't tell you what card is coming up on the river.
Re: IBM Watson Health slashes workforce
#74Very sad for long time IBMers. But Is it the beginning of the much controversial AI Winter revival ?
My friend who survived the layoffs indicated that this was due to in large part changes in the political/regulatory landscape that made it so the companies they were working with would no longer require the features that IBM was providing.
What changed?
Re: IBM Watson Health slashes workforce
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is MUMPS still a thing :-) maybe I ought to dust of my RT-11 / FORTRAN skills off
The biggest EMR company was Epic and uses Mumps [0]. However, they are losing share to Center and others [1], so this formula will only work for a little while longer. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13860937 [1] https://ehrintelligence.com/news/cerner-epic-mckesson-among-...
Epic still dominates the EHR space.
They have deployments slotted for 3 years.
If you have ever worked with epic, they offer "managed" solutions, which you either do the epic designed way, or don't go epic... They have enough market share and business to dictate how things will work in a hospital env
Re: IBM Watson Health slashes workforce
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
I work for a medical software company which evaluated Watson for use in our diagnostic product. It should be seen as a Good Thing that medical is a Serious Field where Non-Serious Ideas get run through the ringer and fail. And that's what happened with Watson. The word from our engineers was that Watson was designed to sell commercials, not be a useful tool in a problem space like differential diagnosis or drug react…
Tangentially related: how does one get their foot in the door at a medical software company? Is there a big market for such professionals?
You get at the door of companies in the healthcare space that need to get up to their game and tell them what you can do for them. That's what I did.
Re: IBM Watson Health slashes workforce
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am a nerdy physician desperate to work with somebody on decision tree based expert systems. Are there a bunch of existing projects that I’m just missing?
Well, I just started an open source project to gather the data for such systems. It is starting as a database/graph of symptoms and conditions. But the vision is bigger than that. https://github.com/gafmgafm/med There are similar products but they are not open source, such as: http://apimedic.com/ and http://www.diseasesdatabase.com/
I've been doing a lot of work lately with automated Abductive Inference, and medical diagnosis has been cited as one of the key uses of same. Perhaps there could be some opportunity to collaborate (everything I do is open source as well, btw). If you guys would like to talk, feel free to hit me up at prhodes@fogbeam.com
Re: IBM Watson Health slashes workforce
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
My company software is considered a Class 2 medical device. We have to go through so many crippling hurdles with FDA it's almost not worth it. You are spot on. To add though, In atleast the diagnostic imaging space, radiologist reading groups/practices are selecting their own systems more and more nowadays. Individual doctors? Likely not.
So why do you need FDA regulation in your situation? I know people handling security regulation in the defense industry and I'm curious how you know the FDA has to approve you as opposes to CMS and what it entails.
What it entails depends on the product. FDA has 2 regulatory classes which require a premarket notification, class 2 and class 3. Class 2 submissions generally require you to comply with a set of software development standards governing testing and validation, requirements generation at multiple levels, interface design, risk management, traceability, design, and actual development. You are required to handle customer complaints, safety problems, and maintenance in specific ways. You are required to produce customer facing documentation in specific ways, have installation plans, etc. Finally, you need to register yearly with the FDA and have all sorts of training and infrastructure planning. Proof of all of this is to be constantly generated (think every test report) and it all gets put into a massive file for FDA review. There are also some writeups you need to do explaining why you are class 2 as opposed to class 3. This generally involves finding a class 2 piece of software which resembles yours and saying your software is basically doing the same thing. This is typically referred to as a 510(k) submission.
There is also a pathway you can apply for if there is no existing device with a class 2 designation which resembles yours, but you believe your device is still fairly low risk. That is called a de Novo submission.
A class 3 submission generally involves even stricter requirements for development plus a clinical trial to prove efficacy and safety. The most common one if these is called a PMA which stands for premarket approval.
Also, if you are FDA regulated you still have to comply with CMS regs. It is an extra layer of regulatory scrutiny.
Re: IBM Watson Health slashes workforce
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
Severance packets is probably not an easy thing to negotiate when you are trying to sign an employment contract.
If it’s a serious company, it’s just an expected, standard part of negotiating, no different than salary, bonus, benefits, vacation, etc. In general, you should ask if you’ll be required to sign any NDA, non-compete, or non-disparagement agreements, either as part of a company handbook or as standalone documents. If so, the severance package should be commensurate with the duration and condition of those. It is commo…
I hear what you are saying, but feel like it also requires the caveat of "for in-demand roles where one has leverage in the negotiation."
At this point, a junior engineer may have some of that, but I'm not sure you can really apply that to all levels of experience across all functions. I agree with the sentiment and logic behind it, I just am not sure that is actually something most people could consider.