Two Giant US companies announced Thursday that they will team up to produce a line of medical devices, including one that would allow doctors to remotely monitor patients’ health without needing to visit the doctors’ office.
The companies involved in this project are giant chipmaker Intel Corp. and General Electric Co. Together, they plan to spend as much as $250 million over the course of five years to develop medical devices which will allow doctors to track patients with diabetes, chronic heart failure, lung problems and other chronic ailments so they can live in their homes longer.
Under the agreement, GE will sell and market the Intel Health Guide, a care management tool designed for health care professionals to stay in touch with their patients via Internet. The Guide received the FDA approval in July 2008 and includes a laptop for patients, as well as online interface for health care providers. It is currently tested by Aetna, Scan Health Plan, Erickson Retirement Communities, and the Providence Medical Group in Oregon to see whether it can lead to improved results in treating diseases like heart failure, hypertension and diabetes.
Under the deal, the companies will seek to add more functions into the Health Guide, such as the ability to monitor patients with sleep apnea remotely.
“This is the first step in what we believe will be a big business going forward,” General Electric Chief Executive Jeffrey Immelt said at a press conference.
Intel has also become associated with the Mayo Clinic and the American Heart Association, two major non-profit organizations in the U.S., in order to provide the application's clinical assessments, evidence-based treatment guidelines, as well as educational multimedia content.
On the other hand, GE has also made important steps into the medical field. The company has recently started to sell a home motion-sensor system called Quiet Care for retirement homes that monitors patients’ movement patterns and automatically sends an alarm to monitors if something seems amiss, such as a senior not leaving the bathroom for a long time. Only 2,500 people have the device so far.
The partnership is seen positively in an era of computerized medicine. The medical devices that will come out from this partnership will alow doctors to better track for more people more efficiently than they can by just calling patients.
“You are not going to be able to take care of [everyone] in hospitals. You are going to have to take care of people in their home,” said Intel Vice President Louis Burns.
Intel's CEO and President Paul Otellini also noted that by 2030 more than 71 million people in the US are expected to be 65 or older, about twice the number who were in that age rage in 2006. This means the medical system will have to spend more money in taking care of them, which makes the computerized devices more necessary than they currently are.
“We simply do not have enough facilities, doctors or nurses to provide quality health care for this aging population. Quality of life is best when people are in their homes ... and able to live as they choose,” Otellini said.
