IBM and Under Armour To Help Diabetic Patients With Watson

IBM and Under Armour have joined hands together for the cause of diabetic patients.

IBM announced an agreement with fitness and sports retailer ‘Under Armour’ to utilize machine-learning technology from Watson. It demonstrated its software for diabetic care produced with the supercomputer data, highlighting the effort of the company to grow Watson’ capacities for the medical industry.

Under Amour and IBM launched updated fitness software for Apple iPhones that uses Watson powered data, CEO of IBM Ginni Rometty spoke at the CES in Nevada’s state, Las Vegas. Separately, CEO of Medtronic Plc, Omar Isharak, was together with Ginni on stage to introduce a prototype for diabetes-managing app that may be capable of making a calculation of hypoglycemic events at the earliest; i.e. 180 minutes in advance.

The software yet must go through regulatory review and it would be rolled in the summer of 2016, Ginni said. The capability to make a prediction of the hypoglycemic events is a “breakthrough,” she added, “Up to three hours in advance is what prevents dangerous health events from happening.” 

Ginni has betted that Watson would be a significant long-term expansion area for the company, as it tries to reverse a 14-quarter revenue decline by moving its focus to analytics and cloud computation. This indicates that managed is optimistic about the development in this sector.

The American company has targeted the services of Watson on Internet of Things and medical industries, and has developed company teams devoted to both markets. The technology offers what Ginni calls cognitive computation, using machine-learning algorithms to produce predictive and prescriptive analysis.

Revenue earned by Watson would probably reach $1bn soon, now included in the analytics group, which earned $17bn in sales revenue last year. Watson-powered Under Armour’s software ‘UA Record’ analyzes and aggregates an individual’s fitness and health data to offer personalized advice and coaching. Some examples include the software informing the user about the average steps taken daily.

Under Armour has disbursed around $700m to purchase organizations that develop mobile workout applications like MapMyFitness. The objective is to pioneer what CEO Kevin Plank has referred to as a “halo effect” to lure more procurements and loyalty from consumers of the Baltimore-based enterprise. It turned these takeovers into software’s suite employed by 155 million people that is capable of integrating with the motion sensors of smartphone and other products, including the wristbands of Fitbit. The entire activity is capable of being tracked by a UA record mobile application, which is known as a healthcare dashboard linked to a social network and company’s online store.