CAMBRIDGE, Mass., March 11, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM Watson Health (NYSE: IBM) and EBSCO Information Services (EBSCO) today announced a strategic collaboration aimed towards enhancing clinical decision support (CDS) and operations for healthcare providers and health systems. The companies are combining their respective solution suites – DynaMed^® and IBM^® Micromedex^® with Watson™ – into a single, high-value global solution called "DynaMed and Micromedex with Watson." The combined solution suite will be designed to bring together drug and disease content, into a single source 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 to support 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 comes from knowing the evidence-based methodologies that helped build the content foundation¹," said Anil Jain, Vice President, Chief Health Information Officer, IBM Watson Health. "When clinicians are confident that their clinical decision support is drawing recommendations from accurate and timely information, they are more likely to use the technology to support their care decisions.²"   

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

"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 will harness world class content from DynaMed and IBM Micromedex onto a seamless and personalized solution. 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 technology³" said Todd Nolen, General Manager, IBM Micromedex Solutions, 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 within their clinical workflow."

DynaMed and Micromedex with Watson is expected to be available for general adoption in April, 2020.⁴ IBM Watson Health and EBSCO Information Services will also continue to sell the IBM Micromedex with Watson and DynaMed solution suites separately in order to offer flexible options to help meet customers' needs.

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

About IBM Watson Health
IBM Watson Health is a data, analytics, and technology partner for the health industry. Supported by the innovation of IBM and intelligence of Watson, we are committed to helping build smarter health ecosystems. Through the combination of our deep industry expertise in health, data and analytics, actionable insights, and reputation for security and trust, Watson Health is working together with its clients and partners to help them 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 healthcare 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.

IBM Media Contact
Carolyn Castel
857337-0601
carolyn.castel@ibm.com

EBSCO Media Contact
Jessica Holmes
Communications Director
978-356-6500 ext. 3485
jmholmes@ebsco.com

¹Khairat S, Marc D, Crosby W, Al Sanousi A. Reasons For Physicians Not Adopting Clinical Decision Support Systems: Critical Analysis. JMIR Med Inform. 2018;6(2):e24. Published 2018 Apr 18. doi:10.2196/medinform.8912
²Khairat S, Marc D, Crosby W, Al Sanousi A. Reasons For Physicians Not Adopting Clinical Decision Support Systems: Critical Analysis. JMIR Med Inform. 2018;6(2):e24. Published 2018 Apr 18. doi:10.2196/medinform.8912
³Jamoom E, Yang N. Table of Electronic Health Record Adoption and Use among Office-based Physicians in the U.S., by State: 2015 National Electronic Health Records Survey. 2016. From: Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. 'Office-based Physician Electronic Health Record Adoption,' Health IT Quick-Stat #50. dashboard.healthit.gov/quickstats/pages/physician-ehr-adoption-trends.php. January 2019. Accessed on February 28, 2020. 
⁴All information being released represents IBM's current intent, is subject to change or withdrawal, and represents only goals and objectives.

SOURCE IBM Watson Health