Watch IBM Watson Select Treatments for a Cancer Patient

No human could possibly read the entirety of medical literature, personal health records, and case file histories that might inform a doctor's professional opinion when trying to save a cancer patient's life. Rob Merkel, health care and life sciences lead at IBM Watson, the company's machine learning group, demonstrated the computer system's ability to digest a vast amount of material, weigh alternatives, and spit out possible treatment options for patients on Wednesday. "What we see here are patient cases," said Merkel, standing in front of an open laptop in front of an audience at Fortune's inaugural Brainstorm Health conference in San Diego, Calif. Get Brainstorm Health Daily, Fortune's health and biopharma newsletter. Merkel pulled together a profile for hypothetical person diagnosed with stage 2B breast cancer.