Alder Hey Children’s Hospital: Using IBM Watson cognitive technology to enhance the patient experience
Customer Company Size
Large Corporate
Region
- Europe
Country
- United Kingdom
Product
- IBM Watson
Tech Stack
- Cognitive Computing
Implementation Scale
- Enterprise-wide Deployment
Impact Metrics
- Customer Satisfaction
- Productivity Improvements
Technology Category
- Analytics & Modeling - Real Time Analytics
Applicable Industries
- Healthcare & Hospitals
Applicable Functions
- Quality Assurance
Services
- Data Science Services
About The Customer
Alder Hey Children’s Hospital is a UK-based healthcare institution that provides medical services to young patients. The hospital is known for its commitment to creating a welcoming and less stressful environment for its patients and their families. As part of its innovative approach to healthcare, Alder Hey has collaborated with the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) Hartree Centre to leverage IBM Watson technology. The aim of this collaboration is to enhance communication and engagement between clinicians, young patients, and their families. The hospital is also keen on using technology to uncover insights from anonymized patient data to improve its care services.
The Challenge
Going to hospital can be intimidating for young patients, whether going in for a routine examination or major surgery. Alder Hey Children’s Hospital wanted to use technology to reduce patients’ anxiety about their hospital experiences. The hospital considered this when it built its new facility, taking care to keep the architecture and décor light and whimsical. But the organisation wanted to do more than make its facility welcoming—it wanted to make the entire hospital experience less stressful for patients and their families. The hospital aimed to keep surprises to a minimum for young patients by providing them with information tailored to their needs.
The Solution
Alder Hey, in collaboration with the STFC Hartree Centre, is using IBM Watson technology to enhance communication and engagement between clinicians, young patients, and their families. The technology analyses anonymized data provided by patients to uncover insights that the hospital can then use to improve the way it cares for patients. The team from Alder Hey and the STFC Hartree Centre have been asking hundreds of patients and their parents a range of questions, covering everything from basic demographics to where they prefer to park, what they like to eat, which games and films they enjoy, and how they want their rooms to look. All of this unstructured data is helping teach the IBM Watson platform about each patient’s preferences, to empower clinicians to personalise patients’ stays. The IBM Watson platform will provide cognitive analytics that deliver insights that enable the hospital to – in essence – think, sense and feel what is happening within it.
Operational Impact
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