- GE’s rivals will be looking at this as it affects their desires to be in the global home healthcare market. Is our ‘pointer to the future’ today a Philips-Tunstall or Bosch-Telefonica alliance/JV? There are numerous larger companies on the sidelines in wireless and mobile health (Alcatel-Lucent, anyone?). And will this prompt companies in India and the rest of Asia to wake up and step up?
- This will worry the many smaller companies–and their investors–fighting to establish themselves as to how much time they have to achieve real revenue and profitability. Will this new company help by leading the way or will it take all the air out of the room? Will this joint venture be eager to acquire promising technologies? (Comments from the AgeTek Alliance here?)
- Will the current Intel and GE systems finally find their way into the home? One notes that Intel Home Health has mainly been placed in pilots with an institutional cast, and QuietCare’s in assisted living facilities.
- Will this help solve the Four Big Questions: who will pay for the technology; what rate will they pay; where does the data go, and who takes action?
- Does this mean opportunity for smaller companies to develop R&D, data processing and software for larger companies/JVs?
- Is the ‘business model change’ a little larger than just this JV? We return to Intel CEO Paul Otellini’s sketch of the future: “a competitive personal health work force of ‘virtual care’ clinicians who are nationally trained, credentialed and licensed to provide cost-effective, efficient care services”. Presumably they would take charge of all this data. Would they be a ‘clinician corps’, a call center or mobile?
Editors Steve and Donna wrote and opined about his article presenting this (almost) exactly one year ago. For those of us who read press releases like tea leaves, note that the first quote in the release, paragraph 4, is by Mr. Otellini.
We’ll be adding to this as we go along, so return for updates. Comments welcome!
Hopeful about what it means…
I am optimistic about this — because it gets product outside of Intel, which is not a product company, consolidates the resources with plenty of additional backing as needed, provides an incentive for Philips to accelerate what it is doing (and Bosch, Tunstall, which I did not note). The execs seem interested in the ultimate user (older adults with chronic disease). I doubt if this will co-mingle with AgeTek, but maybe I am wrong. Here are the rest of my thoughts on this: Aging in Place Technology.
Agility
All of us AgeTek companies should realize one of our biggest advantages is agility. It will take these two 900 lb. gorillas awhile to learn to live in the same cage. During that time we AgeTek people should be getting out onto the street with real solutions that help real people, and real families. That experience will have value that will help level the playing field.
Intel + GE=?
Over all this could be a good move on both of their parts and telehealth and the consumer could gain from this relationship? The downside is there could be a clash of cultures and the technology may be ahead of the curve. Only time will tell?