IBM Buys Truven, Adding to Growing Trove of Patient Data at Watson Health - The New York Times

A $2.6B expansion for IBM's Watson Health initiative

"The Truven acquisition, Mr. Kelly added, rounds out the range of data assets and data management capabilities in health care that IBM had in mind when it established the Watson Health unit. Explorys and Phytel, he said, brought mostly data from patients’ electronic medical records. The $1 billion purchase of Merge Healthcare, a medical-imaging software company, added expertise in managing health image data, which is steadily growing in importance, Mr. Kelly said.

Truven, he said, contributes vital payment information on patients. And payment records include detailed coding on disease types, diagnosis, drugs prescribed and clues to outcomes if, say, a patient does not respond to one treatment and is given another.

“It’s a very key cog to give us one of the most complete data sets on patients and health care in the world,” Mr. Kelly said."

IBM Buys Truven, Adding to Growing Trove of Patient Data at Watson Health - The New York Times