Medtronic and IBM’s Watson Health Unit are teaming up to provide personalized, more comprehensive and powerful data to diabetes management solutions, leveraging Medtronic’s diabetes devices and care management products with IBM’s Watson Health Cloud, which is a secure and open platform.

In a recent Medtronic press release:

The two companies also expect to develop near real-time, dynamic personalized care plans that provide decision support for health care providers and their patients with the goal of improving care efficiency and outcomes. IBM and Medtronic will also jointly explore ways to leverage IBM’s Watson platform to improve Medtronic and partners’ closed loop algorithms, which intend to mimic the function of a healthy pancreas. 

“We are building a secure, open innovation platform that could change the face of diabetes management,” said John E. Kelly III, IBM senior vice president, solutions portfolio and research. “Medtronic and IBM can marry the power of analytics, cognitive computing and patient engagement with the world’s most sophisticated diabetes management devices to truly change how people with diabetes live.”

IBM’s Watson Health Unit has announced other recent collaborations, including on Apple’s HealthKit and ResearchKit; and with Johnson & Johnson to monitor and enhance patient care prior to and following hip and knee replacements.