Partnership to enhance clinical decision support operations

CAMBRIDGE, MA – IBM Watson Health and EBSCO Information Services (EBSCO) today announced a strategic partnership aimed towards enhancing clinical decision support (CDS) and operations for healthcare providers and health systems. The companies are combining their respective platforms – DynaMed® and IBM Micromedex® – into a single, high-value solution called DynaMed and Micromedex with Watson.

The combined solution is designed to bring together drug and disease content, into a single search for evidence-based insights to help inform clinical decisions.

DynaMed® provides peer-reviewed clinical content including systematic literature reviews in 28 specialties for comprehensive disease topics, health conditions, and abnormal findings to highly focused topics on evaluation, differential diagnosis, and management. The content undergoes a rigorous, seven-step process, giving clinicians access to current, evidence-based diagnostic and therapeutic recommendations. IBM Micromedex is one of the largest online reference databases for medication information. It is used by more than 4,500 hospitals and health systems worldwide for decision-making in medication therapy management, disease and condition management, toxicology, alternative medicine and patient education.

“Research shows that healthcare provider confidence in clinical decision support recommendations comes from knowing the evidence-based methodologies that helped build the content foundation,” said Anil Jain (pictured), vice president, chief health officer, IBM Watson Health. “When clinicians are confident that their CDS is drawing recommendations from accurate and timely information, they are more likely to use the technology to support their care decisions.”

DynaMed and Micromedex with Watson is designed to provide clinicians direct access to drug and disease content at the point-of-care to aide in clinical decision making. It is designed to use artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language processing (NLP) to bypass keyword searches in favor of a more conversational approach to search.

“The synergy of our world class, evidence-based content is expected to drive efficiencies for more healthcare systems using data-driven insights for decision making,” said Betsy Jones, executive vice president, EBSCO Clinical Decisions. “Built on the latest cloud-based technology, we have harnessed world class content from DynaMed and IBM Micromedex onto a seamless and personalized platform. A terrific alternative for the care team.”

“When it comes to clinical decision support, content is king. Nearly nine out of 10 physicians in the US currently implement electronic health record technology,” said Todd Nolen, general manager, IBM Micromedex, IBM Watson Health. “We believe DynaMed and Micromedex with Watson can deliver value and innovation to healthcare organizations, to help enable rapid access to high-quality medical evidence that is essential for clinicians as they work to provide safe and effective patient care.”

DynaMed and Micromedex with Watson is expected to be available for general adoption in Spring, 2020. IBM and EBSCO will also continue to sell the IBM Micromedex and DynaMed®  solutions separately in order to offer flexible options to help meet customers’ needs.

Please visit www.dynamedex.com to learn more about the platform, schedule a live demo with the team of experts, or to register for the April 9 webinar, Better Together: DynaMed and Micromedex with Watson.

About IBM Watson Health
Watson Health is a business unit of IBM that is committed to helping build smarter health ecosystems with the proven innovation of IBM and the dynamic intelligence of Watson. Through the combination of technology, rich data, advanced analytics, deep industry knowledge, and a reputation for trust and security, Watson Health is working together with its clients and partners to help achieve simpler processes, better care insights, faster breakthroughs, and improved experiences for people around the world. Learn more at ibm.com/watson/health.

About EBSCO’s Health Resources
EBSCO Information Services (EBSCO) is a leading provider of clinical decision support solutions, medical research information and business intelligence for the healthcare industry. EBSCO users include professionals in medicine, nursing, and allied health. Flagship products include DynaMed®, Dynamic Health™, clinical e-books and e-journals, EBSCO Discovery Service™, licensed databases (such as CINAHL® Complete, MEDLINE® Complete) plus EBSCONET®. EBSCO’s health databases are powered by EBSCOhost®, the research platform favored by libraries around the world.