IBM cognitive computing speeds Mayo trial enrollment

Mayo Clinic (Rochester, Minn.) and IBM Corp. (NYSE:IBM) said IBM’s Watson for Clinical Trials Matching cognitive computing system increased mean enrollment in Mayo’s systemic therapy clinical trials for breast cancer by 80% in its first 11 months of use. The partners also said the program lowered the time to screen an individual patient for trials compared with manual methods.

Mayo implemented the system -- which matches patients to breast, lung and gastrointestinal cancer clinical trials for which they may be eligible -- in July 2016. The partners plan to expand training and use of the system for additional cancer types...