Certainly the top story for Monday is the announcement that GE and Intel have created a 50/50 joint venture to create a new healthcare company focused on telehealth and independent living. The company will combine the assets of GE Home Health and Intel Digital Health, which include not only QuietCare and the Intel Home Health Guide (both well known to our readers), but also the Intel Reader text-to-speech assistive technology.  According to their joint statement, this new joint venture stems from their April 2009 alliance and ‘common vision to use technology to bring more effective healthcare into millions of homes.’ The new operation will be located in Sacramento CA and expected to start by end of year:  the CEO will be Louis Burns, currently VP/GM of Intel Digital Health, and chairman of the board will be Omar Ishrak, president of GE Healthcare. Release (PDF).

On the announcement webcast, Burns commented that the joint venture would be ‘more agile out from under both parents’, but would draw on the resources of both in developing current and new technologies; Ishrak predicted a ‘business model change’. Current clients will continue to be supported.  To be determined:  the joint venture’s name; the effect on current brands; the management structure; revenue projections; from what areas/companies the expected ‘hundreds of employees’ will come (QuietCare is still based in NYC with GE staff in Waukesha, WI and Hungary; Intel is in Santa Clara well southwest of Sacramento), and what the impact will be on current partners/reseller relationships (Direct Supply and others for QuietCare in US; AMAC, GTSI, Fujitsu (Holland), Orange Healthcare (France), Telefonica (Spain) for Intel.

And what can this possibly mean….?

National Public Radio (NPR), the US (taxpayer supported) national radio network, catches up to ‘skin patch’ sensors of the type commonly dubbed as Band-Aid® style in this five-minute feature and associated online article on ‘All Things Considered’.  None will be strangers to our… Read moreNPR on 'band-aid' sensors for remote monitoring (US)

Because so many are located in Florida! Here’s another entrant, InteractiveMD in Boca Raton, which will introduce 24/7 doctor consults this month.  Already they are projecting Bluetooth connected stethoscopes and other vital signs monitoring.  They join Ameridoc in Sunrise and Consult A Doctor in… Read moreHow are online doctor consult companies like palm trees?

On Sunday, Japanese researchers unveiled a robot that can mimic speech and gestures sent to it by video-phone, replicating a distant caller’s presence. (And no, it’s not the dancing cellphone, which is actually much more fun.) Called the Telenoid R1,… Read moreAnother Japanese care robot

Healthcare Providers Guide to Telehealth (Best Practice Insights). A snip at US$ 1,895.00 (GBP£ 1,208.14 – €1,452.48) for just 8 pages! [Thanks, we need a good laugh from time to time!] Bharat Book Bureau.

VA set to spend billions on IT ‘Nuff said?