Enhanced DeepQA in a medical environment

A computer program product for enhancing automated deep question and answering comprising:

• a tangible, computer-readable memory storage device;
• first program code for receiving from a deep question-answer computing system at least one potential answer to a user-supplied clue or user-supplied question with a confidence factor associated with each received potential answer, wherein the confidence factor comprises an estimated likelihood of correctness according to semantic analysis exclusive of a rank based on feature or keyword count;
• second program code for comparing each confidence factor to a threshold;
• third program code for, responsive to a confidence factor not meeting the threshold, automatically performing a crowd sourcing operation on the user-supplied clue or user-supplied question to yield a crowd-sourced enhancement to the clue or question;
• fourth program code for supplying the crowd-sourced enhancement to the deep question-answer computing system;
• fifth program code for, responsive to receiving an enhanced potential answer and associated enhanced confidence factor from the deep question-answer computing system, repeating the comparing;
• and
• sixth program code for, responsive to an enhanced potential answer and associated enhanced confidence factor meeting the threshold, providing to a user the enhanced potential answer via a user interface portion of a computer system;
• wherein the first, second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth program codes are stored by the tangible, computer-readable memory storage device.

A system for enhancing automated deep question and answering comprising:

• an input portion of a computer for receiving from a deep question-answer computing system at least one potential answer to a user-supplied clue or user-supplied question with a confidence factor associated with each received potential answer, wherein the confidence factor comprises an estimated likelihood of correctness according to semantic analysis exclusive of a rank based on feature or keyword count;
• a comparator portion of a computer for comparing each confidence factor to a threshold;
• a crowd source operation trigger portion of a computer for, responsive to a confidence factor not meeting the threshold, automatically performing a crowd sourcing operation on the user-supplied clue or user-supplied question to yield a crowd-sourced enhancement to the clue or question;
• an output portion of a computer for supplying the crowd-sourced enhancement to the deep question-answer computing system;
• a controller portion of a computer for, responsive to receiving an enhanced potential answer and associated enhanced confidence factor from the deep question-answer computing system, causing the repeating the comparing and, responsive to an enhanced potential answer and associated enhanced confidence factor meeting the threshold, providing to a user the enhanced potential answer via a user interface portion of a computer system.