Welltok Embraces IBM Watson for Personal Health Platform

November 14, 2014

It’s so satisfying to watch a young A.I. grow up and give back to the community. VentureBeat tells us “How Welltok Tapped IBM’s Watson to Upgrade Its Health Optimization Platform.” Ever eager to expand Watson’s resume, IBM reportedly approached Welltok in 2013 about working together. Writer Devindra Hardawar reports:

“Welltok has been developing a health optimization platform for years, dubbed CafeWell, which analyzes your health profile from a variety of sources and offers up insight on how to stay fit…. Welltok announced last summer that it was taking advantage of Watson for a souped-up version of its product, CafeWell Concierge, which is currently in beta testing with an unnamed partner. And earlier this year, Welltok was also the first startup to receive funding from IBM’s Watson Group (and it just recently raised another $25 million). Rather than waiting until you get sick to head to the doctor, CafeWell Concierge always keeps track of your ‘personal health itinerary’ (Welltok’s cutesy name for your health profile) to offer up health help. If you’re traveling while on a specific diet, for example, it could automatically recommend restaurants near your hotel that suit your needs. Or it could remind you that it’s been too long since your last doctor’s appointment.”

The piece quotes Welltock’s CMO Michelle Snyder, who was happy IBM turned its gaze on her company when looking to shift Watson’s healthcare-related focus from the clinical to the personal. It seems the A.I’s cognitive-computing chops are the perfect solution for Welltock’s need to create personalized user experiences — a crucial detail that will likely prompt many more patients to actually use the platform.

Calling itself the “health optimization pioneer,” Welltok aims to make it easy and rewarding for people to take a more active role in their own healthcare. The company was founded in 2009, and is based in Denver, Colorado.

Cynthia Murrell, November 14, 2014

Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext

Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under News, Technology

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Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his high-tech nerve center in rural Kentucky. He tries to winnow the goose feathers from the giblets. He works with colleagues worldwide to make this Web log useful to those who want to go "beyond search". Contact him at sa [at] arnoldit.com. His Web site with additional information about search is arnoldit.com.