Billionaire Jho Low Donates $50M to Teach Watson to be a Cancer Expert and Could Significantly Improve Treatment

In his younger years, Jho Low was a well-known billionaire party boy from one of Malaysia’s wealthiest families. Today, the 33-year old is becoming very well-known for his philanthropic endeavors giving million dollar donations to many noble causes around the globe. In a recent interview, Low discussed struggles with cancer in his family including a recent cancer scare of his own, which led him to MD Anderson Cancer Center in Texas. The renowned facility is part of the University of Texas medical system and is famous for the Oncology Expert Advisor (OEA), also known as the Watson cancer program. Low decided helping build OEA could be very significant to the world and gave them an astonishing $50 million to develop it even further.

The Watson computer system from “Jeopardy!” is being transformed into a cancer expert for the masses by experts at MD Anderson Cancer Center. Low believes that OEA, “could be as easy as a patient picking up a cellphone and asking some questions about his condition. The questions and data could go back to OEA for analysis and maybe even back to their home clinic for analysis.” Doctors could tell patients to get more tests if they needed more data. That massive data would be thoroughly analyzed and will likely revolutionize the way we approach and treat cancer. Data sharing is especially important in the research realm and with these technologies, the future of curative treatments is looking very bright.

Written by Alison Killian

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Alison Killian is a recent graduate of Grove City College who majored in Business Management and minored in Biology Studies. She is a contributor to Medical Groups and passionate about all facets of healthcare. She plans on continuing work in the healthcare field especially in management. She is very interested in healthcare innovation and finding ways to improve the current system. She hopes to go back to school in a few years to earn a degree in medicine.