Moreover, the clinical algorithms developed by MSKCC may well feature diagnostic studies and treatment recommendations that are not readily executed in the places where decision-making support is most needed.

FORBES: Is IBM's Watson in Jeopardy? This Oncologist Thinks So!

The medical recommendations it creates based on a learning process of digesting case histories from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), Cleveland Clinic, and other institutions can only be as good as the data that are input and the decision-making processes it is charged to recreate.

FORBES: Is IBM's Watson in Jeopardy? This Oncologist Thinks So!

There is good reason to be concerned that practicing the broad export of MSKCC-inspired clinical algorithms, which may sometimes appear to have been developed with only a passing nod to compelling clinical evidence and near disdain for fiscal restraint, could be a bit too much like having shopping algorithms inspired by the Kardashians.

FORBES: Is IBM's Watson in Jeopardy? This Oncologist Thinks So!

Clinical results from MSKCC and many of the other most renowned tertiary care centers are widely known to be unable to ever be reproduced in broader populations, almost certainly because patients at places like MSKCC are disproportionately younger, more fit, have more resources, and have whatever other intangible benefits are conferred by being motivated to travel beyond their local cancer center for very specialized care.

FORBES: Is IBM's Watson in Jeopardy? This Oncologist Thinks So!