IBM Partners With Tekes, Expands Watson Health To Finland

International Business Machines Corp (NYSE:IBM) recently announced a partnership with Tekes, a Finland-based funding agency. The partnership will enable Finland to make use of cognitive computing technology offered by Watson Health.

Watson Health will help doctors to provide better treatment in the country as well as boost the business ecosystem and innovation related to healthcare in the country.

Advantage Finland

We note that the collaboration will help Finland in many ways. Some of the probable outcomes of the partnership are opening of start-ups, improved opportunities for Finland based companies to grow globally and digitalization of the healthcare sector, which will benefit both small and large companies associated with the field.

Per the deal, Finnish doctors and researchers will collaborate with Watson Health researchers, engineers, data scientists and designers to develop innovative healthcare solutions and applications. This will lead to advancement of research and development and innovation in the country.

IBM is planning to set up a Watson Health Center of Excellence in the country along with a Nordic Healthcare Competence Center and a National Imaging Center of Excellence, both of which will be the first of their kind outside the U.S. IBM intends to employ 150 people in these healthcare centers in the near future.

Finland’s University of Jyvaskyla has been collaborating with IBM Watson for sometime now and the results have been encouraging. Moreover, the focus on digitalization as well as digital services is helping the university to innovate using IBM’s technology.

Our Take

With cognitive computing gradually gaining traction in the healthcare segment with its capability to diagnose diseases accurately, IBM’s Watson Health has huge growth opportunity in healthcare applications. We believe IBM will continue to pursue similar kind of collaborations that will help in expanding its global presence in the long haul.

Zacks Rank & Key Picks

At present, IBM carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Some better-ranked stocks in the broader technology space are Lantronix, Inc. (NASDAQ:LTRX) sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and NCR Corporation (NYSE:NCR) and VASCO Data Security International Inc. (NASDAQ:VDSI) , each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

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