Two heavyweights of digital health, Royal Philips and Qualcomm Life, are teaming up to push interoperability among personal connected healthcare devices.
Philips and Qualcomm Life — the health and life sciences subsidiary of communications giant Qualcomm — are announcing their partnership Wednesday at Connect 2016, the latter’s annual conference on connected health, in San Diego.
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Qualcomm Life will help Philips design technology on Qualcomm’s 2net connectivity platform, while Qualcomm will migrate much of its device data to the Philips HealthSuite cloud. 2net is “medical-grade,” Qualcomm Life President Rick Valencia said, meaning that it is regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and that it meets HIPAA security requirements.
The Qualcomm network is based on open standards; it is integrated with about 40 different vendors of electronic health records, plus dozens of other technology companies, according to Valencia. “This is deciding that the future is about open systems,” he said of the Philips partnership.
The deal has been in the works for a while as the two companies look for ways to support healthcare providers in care coordination, reduction of emergency visits and prevention of hospital readmissions. “We’ve been working with them on this connectivity for two years,” Valencia said.
“By collaborating with Qualcomm Life and leveraging its connectivity and wireless expertise, we aim to help care providers to engage better with their patients and contribute to the goal of improving outcomes,” Jeroen Tas, CEO of connected care and health informatics at Amsterdam-based Philips, said in a statement.
In other news around Connect 2016, Qualcomm Life announced Tuesday that it would work with Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals to develop a disposable, wireless connectivity module for the drug company’s Respimat inhaler. Respimat dispenses medications that treat chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder.
“The goal of this new collaboration with Qualcomm Life is to help improve adherence to daily medicines that treat symptoms of COPD,” Ruchin Kansal, Boehringer’s head of business innovation, said via email.
This planned module is intended to build upon connectivity Boehringer is creating in tandem with Propeller Health.
“While this new technology will not be available for the next few years, once it is, it will enhance the healthcare solution we are committed to providing through Propeller Health. We remain committed to enrolling patients into the current Propeller Health program, which is designed to determine how the technology impacts adherence rates and patient engagement,” Kansal said. “We hope our work with Propeller will set the stage for this latest technology in the years to come.”
Stephanie Baum contributed to this story.
Photo: Flickr user Thomas Hawk
