ZÜRICH and BAD NEUSTADT, Germany, Oct. 18, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, RHÖN-KLINIKUM AG (RKA), a private hospital group in Germany, has announced, that by the end of the year, it will begin piloting a Watson-powered cognitive assistance system to help support physicians at the group's Centre for Undiagnosed and Rare Diseases located at the University Hospital Marburg.

Since it opened in 2013, the renowned Center has been contacted by more than 6,000 patients to visit Prof. Dr. Jürgen Schäfer, a leading expert in rare diseases, who is also known as the "German Dr. House," based on the character of the eponymous American medical television drama. Most of the patients he and his team meets with have year-long medical histories, which include a large amount of unstructured data, such as laboratory tests, clinical reports, drug prescriptions, radiology findings as well as pathology reports.

"It's not uncommon for our patients to have thousands of medical documents, leaving us overwhelmed, not only by the large number of patients, but also by the huge amount of data to be reviewed," said Prof. Dr. Jürgen Schäfer, University Hospital Marburg. "This is especially challenging because our work is often like searching for the proverbial needle in the haystack -- even the smallest piece of information could lead to an accurate diagnosis."
Currently, when the Center's expert physicians meet patients for the first time, they conduct a thorough diagnosis by speaking with the patients and carefully studying their medical history. This is augmented by their own knowledge and experiences, medical journals, online websites and expert tools – a process, which can take several days for each patient.

Pilot phase at the "Centre for Undiagnosed and Rare Diseases"

RKA has teamed up with IBM (NYSE: IBM) for a 12-month pilot project where medical and technical scientists and designers from both companies are working together to develop a cognitive assistance system for rare diseases. Its overall goal is to support physicians to analyze patient data to help them make decisions more quickly and safely.

"The amount of medical knowledge continues to explode to the point where it will double every 73 days by the year 2020. Therefore, the planned use of cognitive technology such as IBM Watson is intended to support our evidence-based and individually optimized treatment for each patient," said Prof. Dr. Bernd Griewing, Chief Medical Officer, RHÖN-KLINIKUM AG. "We are developing an assistance system to facilitate the preparation and evaluation of existing patient information before and during a consultation with physicians This will help our doctors reach diagnostic decisions and select appropriate treatment options."

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