International Business Machine (NYSE:IBM) said today ex-Royal Philips (NYSE:PHG) Healthcare CEO Deborah DiSanzo has joined up as general manager of its new Watson Health unit.
The unit, headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., brings new cloud-based services under the IBM Watson Health moniker and will grow existing services and relationships with companies like Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) and Medtronic (NYSE:MDT).
“Watson Health is driving a new era of technology-driven health, enabling entrepreneurs and industry leaders to address diverse needs, spanning the earliest stages of research all the way through to clinical care and population health through to consumer wellness. The variety of new partners and use cases underscores the flexibility and scalability of the IBM Watson Health Cloud to help leaders rapidly advance the state of the art in health and wellness. Further, IBM Watson Health is building for scale, with partners, offerings and now a worldwide headquarters designed to help global organizations meet the world’s pressing health needs,” Watson group senior veep Mike Rhodin said in prepared remarks.
The company said it launched 2 new portfolio services, the IBM Watson Health Cloud for Life Sciences compliance and IBM Watson Care manager. The life sciences program is designed to aid in streamlining the process of bringing regulated devices to market more hastily, while the care manager is a population health solution designed to aid researchers.
IBM said that Boston Children’s Hospital, Columbia University, Icon PLC, Sage Bionetworks and Teva Pharmaceuticals have signed on to use the services, joining a slew of other comapnies.
DiSanzo left Philips last July, after the company said it would shed a layer of management for its Philips Healthcare business unit after reported lower-than-expected earnings for the 2nd quarter.
