Roche has become the latest pharmaceutical company to join the connected health party at Qualcomm Life — in this case to do remote patient monitoring. The goal of the strategic collaboration is to generate big data insights on patients’ condition to reduce complications from chronic conditions, according to a company statement.
Patients’ anti-coagulation meters will be connected to Qualcomm’s 2net wireless platform. The data from the meters will be transmitted to Roche’s cloud-based back-end services. The data from the patients will be used by their care teams to help them identify changes in the patient’s condition and intervene before their health deteriorates.
Jeremy Moss, senior vice president, Point of Care at Roche Professional Diagnostics said the deal marked a significant step in its connected care strategy. “This collaboration marks a significant milestone for Roche as we launch a new generation of point-of-care solutions that enable healthcare professionals to better keep in touch remotely with patients, whenever and wherever they are.”
Qualcomm’s deal with Roche follows a similar announcement at CES with Novartis, although that deal is more to do with improving clinical trial efficiency as part of Novartis Trials of the Future program. That news was also followed by the launch of a joint fund by the two companies to invest in digital health businesses — an initiative other pharmaceutical companies are likely to join to influence the development of their products.
