Queensland company partners with IBM in fight against cancer

BRISBANE-BASED cancer clinic operator Icon Group is banking on new artificially intelligent technology to help spearhead its expansion into Asia.

Cathie Reid, co-founder of Icon Group. Picture: Liam Kidston

BRISBANE-BASED cancer clinic operator Icon Group is banking on new artificially intelligent technology to help spearhead its expansion into Asia.

Icon, which last month saw a consortium including QIC and Goldman Sachs take a majority stake in the group for more than $1 billion, has partnered for an undisclosed sum with computing giant IBM to provide a new digital platform to treat patients.

The deal coincides with Icon opening clinics in China and establishing a global headquarters in Singapore amid rising demand for cancer treatment in Asian countries.

Icon, which is Australia’s largest private day oncology provider, signed an agreement in January to establish cancer centres in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou. The company says that over the next two decades cancer patients in China are expected to rise by 70 per cent.

Icon co-founder Cathie Reid said the AI platform, called IBM Watson for Oncology, identifies cancer treatment options by digitally analysing more than 300 medical journals, more than 200 text books and nearly 15 million pages of text.

Ms Reid said this would allow better targeted treatment as the incidence of cancer grows larger than the number of trained oncologists, particularly in Asia.

“Medicine involves so much information and there is a limit to how much you can remember, no matter how brilliant you are,” said Ms Reid. “There is a phenomenal amount of data generated in journal articles so it takes a considerable effort for doctors to stay ahead.”

Ms Reid said the platform recommended a treatment to a doctor after he or she puts all the details of a particular patient including age, sex and type of cancer into the system.

Currently about 50,000 oncology research papers are published each year.

Medical information is projected to double every 73 days by 2020.

Icon’s new partners also include Beijing-based Pagoda Investments, which would support the group’s long-term expansion into Asia.

“We could not be more excited by our new partners, especially as we move into Asia,” she said. “One of the challenges, especially in developing countries, is that cancer is outstripping the number of oncologists that can be trained.”

Ms Reid said China had big challenges in cancer care because of its ageing population, with services not keeping up with demand. Following a roll out in Australia, Icon will introduce Watson for Oncology at its Asian clinics.

Icon, which employs 1700 people in more than 25 locations, was established five years ago by Brisbane-based pharmacists Cathie Reid and Stuart Giles, who own Epic Pharmacy.