Jeopardy-winning software to aid VA
WASHINGTON -- The Department of Veterans Affairs is planning to use IBM's Watson, the Jeopardy-winning supercomputing system designed to simulate human thinking, to advise doctors on treatment for patients suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, IBM announced last week.
As part of a two-year, multimillion-dollar contract, IBM plans to install Watson software at the department's data center in Austin, Texas. The total contract is valued at $16 million, according to IBM, although the initial setup and assessment phase will cost about $6 million.
Watson is designed to crunch large volumes of medical literature, clinical data and personal electronic medical records to suggest the treatment options it deems most appropriate for individual patients. Physicians can type questions in natural language, and Watson spits out a series of options, ranked by its confidence in each method's success.
IBM has similar partnerships with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York and the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, which both use a version of Watson to advise oncologists.
The Veterans Health Administration has about 150 medical centers and about 1,400 community-based outpatient clinics, living centers and other facilities, covering approximately 8.3 million veterans each year, according to the VA.
Formed in January of last year, IBM's Watson Group has been aggressively marketing the cognitive computing system to various industries -- as a financial adviser, personal shopper and culinary assistant, among others. The unit is funded by a $1 billion investment from the company.
-- The Washington Post
Thai firm bids $1.5B for Bumble Bee
BANGKOK -- A Thai food company is looking at landing another whopper in the U.S. with a $1.5 billion bid for Bumble Bee Seafoods.
Thai Union Frozen Products, which already owns Chicken of the Sea, another major seller of tuna and other seafood, has now hooked the largest canned seafood company in North America.
That would put two of the big three in the U.S. -- the other being StarKist -- in its basket.
The deal must still be approved by U.S. regulators, which could block the takeover or require the company to divest some of its holdings for competitive reasons.
Bumble Bee was acquired by the British investment firm Lion Capital LLP in late 2010. If approved, Thai Union expects to take ownership in the second half of next year.
Thai Union has annual sales exceeding $3 billion with a worldwide workforce of more than 35,000, the company said. San Diego's Bumble Bee generates annual sales of approximately $1 billion with a workforce of more than 1,300 people.
Thiraphong Chansiri, the president and CEO of Thai Union, said it would be the company's largest acquisition.
Other international brands controlled by Thai Union include John West, King Oscar, Petit Navire, Parmentier, Mareblu and Century.
-- The Associated Press
3-D-printed prosthetics help dog run
An adorable dog named Derby, born with deformed front legs, has been given a set of 3-D printed prosthetics. And these custom-made legs, which he can rock back and forth on (to keep him from getting stuck in the dirt) don't just help him walk more easily. With his new legs, he can run.
Derby had the good fortune of being fostered by a woman who knows all about 3-D printing. Tara Anderson works for the company 3D Systems, and she knew that custom prosthetics made with this technology are a more practical choice than traditional prosthetics.
3-D printing has already caused quite a stir in the market for human artificial limbs -- especially for kids. Because scans of the patient's anatomy can be loaded into a computer and saved, they don't need to go through the process of getting a new mold every time they grow. And while 3-D printing is far from being a perfect production process, it's still a whole lot cheaper than traditional methods.
The company is certainly getting some great press from their work on Derby.
"He runs with [my wife] and I every day, at least two to three miles," Dom Portanova, Derby's adoptive owner, said in a statement. "When I saw him sprinting like that on his new legs, it was just amazing."
-- The Washington Post
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