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In early January at the Consumer Electronics

Show in Las Vegas, Pathway Genomics

announced the closed-alpha release of its

OME app. This platform promises to leverage

the cognitive computing power of IBM Watson

with precision medicine and genetics to

deliver personalized wellness information.

As individuals take on greater financial

responsibility for their own healthcare, the

OME app will allow them to take more control

of their health and wellness, customized and

informed by their health status and other

relevant data. As Pathway envisions it, for

consumers to get the most benefit from the

app, they would first get doctor approval for

the Pathway Fit genetic test, which specifically

examines 75 genes that focus on phenotypes

related to diet, exercise, lipids, and sugar

metabolism.

OME-ing in on precision wellness Pathway Genomics’ OME personalized

wellness app leverages Watson’s

cognitive computing

by Chris Anderson

“IBM Watson” by Clockready - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

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IBM was also named as an additional Pathway

investor in a Series E financing that raised $40

million in early January.

The power of the app will come in directly

linking diet, exercise and wellness recommen-

dations to each person’s genetic profile, noted

Bill Evans, vice president of Watson Health.

“Most diets don’t work, because they are not

matched up to a person’s metabolism or the

way they respond to food or exercise,” Evans

said. “This is an exciting capability Pathway

is bringing to market, because it does get the

user much closer to having a more informed

set of information and recommendations that

are tailored to their specific characteristics, as

opposed to general analytics.”

While the app is currently in closed-alpha

testing with employees of two unnamed

companies, Nova said Pathway expects to

make the app available more broadly. One

strategy for speeding adoption of the app

by individuals will be to offer it through

employers as a part of their employee wellness

programs.

As the product matures, Pathway also intends to

enable the inclusion of more sets of data. This

would include the results of diagnostic testing and

information contained in a user’s electronic health

record. Watson will play a vital role in helping

analyze and crunch the data from these additional

data sources, Nova added.

“The one thing artificial intelligence is really good

at is making sense of really big chunks of data

across different silos,” Nova said. “And medicine has

very siloed data. You’ve got insurance information

in one silo, nutrition information in another silo

and it goes on and on. Watson will help us unlock

the information found in these silos.”

The diet, exercise and metabolism report

from the Fit genetic test will be analyzed in

conjunction with other patient data to help

make diet and exercise recommendations via

the app.

“Genetics data is very dense data, but you

can’t do genetics in a vacuum,” said Michael

Nova, MD, chief innovation officer with

Pathway Genomics. “You need information

about the patient, you need clinical data and

also data from wearables: Fitbit, blood pressure

measurements, Apple Watch and others. With

Watson cognitive computing, leveraged by

our technology, we are able to deliver

real-time, highly personalized insights to

empower people to change unhealthy

behaviors, allowing them to live healthier

lives in ways we never thought possible.”

The development of the app took roughly a

year, Nova said, and IBM Watson took an

equity stake in the company in November 2014

to help fund development of the product.