IBM has announced an expansion of its Analytics Solutions Center, in Dallas, to connect medical data to mobile EHRs using natural-language processing and technology similar to that used with its Watson supercomputer.

As part of the center's expansion, IBM will incorporate Watson-like analytics capabilities along with clinical voice recognition from Nuance Communications to link with EHRs on smartphones using voice or text.

Watson was recently featured on the "Jeopardy" game show.

With analytics capabilities like that of Watson, health care organizations will be able to understand large amounts of data and enable better coordinate care and measure clinician performance.

Analytics will allow physicians and researchers to pull meaning and context from human speech and answer complex questions by sifting through millions of books, encyclopedia, periodicals, medical notes, exams and pathology reports. Physicians will be able to access data on patient conditions deep in these documents and make more informed decisions on patient treatment.

Workers at the analytics center can recite data from sensors, medical instruments and patient monitoring systems into EHRs on mobile devices.

A government push toward accountable care models rather than "fee for service" has led to a greater interest in health analytics, according to IBM.

The Department of Health & Human Services is offering incentives to groups of health care providers for Medicare patients' positive health outcomes.

Meanwhile, the analytics center will expand its work in helping hospitals monitor patients remotely from home after they've been discharged using various mobile devices.

Caregivers help patients take readings on temperature, blood pressure and pulse in real time using Bluetooth-enabled smartphones.

For more, read the eWEEK article: IBM Watson Inspires New Effort to Link Health Care Data, Mobile EHRs.

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