Prestige lecture looks at the role of information technology in medicine

Dr Caroline Kovac, General Manager of IBM Healthcare and Life Sciences, will be speaking about the role of information technology in 21st century medicine when she presents the fifth IBM Hursley Lecture at the University of Southampton on Wednesday 10 November.

The lecture at the Turner Sims Concert Hall on the University's Highfield Campus starts at 6.00pm and all are welcome.

"The first quarter of the 21st century will become known as the most exciting and innovative stage in the history of medicine," says Dr Kovac. "As a time when mankind succeeded in decoding the human genome, learned the programming code for major diseases, developed miraculous drug treatments, transformed surgery to one of minimally-invasive methods and elevated the dignity of patients by tailoring diagnoses and therapy to individuals.

"The silent partner of this historical development is information technology," she continues, "which provides the digital alphabet that translates the language of genomics and acts as mankind's "corporate memory", becoming the principal tool that will bond medical knowledge with medical practice and revolutionize the health care process. In effect, this period will mark the convergence of life sciences, health care and information technology."

She explains that this revolution in healthcare will be built around quality of care; health policy and costs; and scientific, pharmaceutical and medical advances. She also looks at the leading work IBM has undertaken in developing and delivering solutions to address pressing issues such as data security, management and integration; knowledge sharing; and high-performance computing.