> Hospitals pay a per-patient fee for Watson for Oncology and other products enabled by the supercomputer. The amount depends on the number of products a hospit

> Hospitals pay a per-patient fee for Watson for Oncology and other products enabled by the supercomputer. The amount depends on the number of products a hospital buys, and ranges between $200 and $1,000 per patient. Sigh. Let's remember that in medicine (a severely resource-constrained system), costs operate in a zero-sum environment. $200-$1,000 spent on Watson is $200-$1,000 not spent on some other treatment or human labor. And, in our current environment, specialist doctors will always have to re-do the diagnosis suggested by Watson, because guess who is held legally responsible, in the case of a malpractice suit? Not IBM, but the doctor co-signing the "recommendation".