IBM buys Truven for $2.6 billion, continues to build its big data focus in healthcare

BANGALORE: IBM is buying Truven Health Analytics for $2.6 billion. As part of the deal, IBM’s Watson Health division is getting new data assets and capabilities, as well as 8,500 clients including government agencies, companies, hospitals, and clinics.

The larger goal is to continue to building out IBM Watson Health’s big-data capabilities in the healthcare space. The purchase of Truven Health will allow IBM to access the cost and treatment data of 200 million plus patients, according to the New York Times.

Truven provides cloud-based healthcare data and analytics, and IBM intends to integrate Truven’s Health medical claims data and methodology with its Watson Health Cloud. With Truven under its wing, IBM’s Watson will have access to more than 8,500 clients that span across US federal and state government agencies, health plans, employers, hospitals, clinicians, and life sciences companies.

Truven is the fourth acquisition IBM has made in an effort to enhance the capabilities of its Watson Health Cloud. Watson Health Cloud, which launched in April 2015, is an open source platform that enables care providers and researchers to share and analyze health data. Prior to Truven, IBM acquired Merge Healthcare for $1 billion. Merge Healthcare provides the software for managing and processing medical images.

Apart from Merge Healthcare, IBM announced the acquisition of Phytel and Explorys to boost its Watson Health Unit in 2015. Phytel builds and develops cloud-based tools to augment care coordination and outcomes. Explorys, a spin-off of the Cleveland Clinic, is a cloud-based data analytics company that uses cloud computing to identify patterns and trends in treatments and diseases.