GE/Intel telehealth joint venture unveiled, operational

‘Intel-GE Care Innovations’ is the name unveiled yesterday (3 January) for the Intel-GE Healthcare joint venture announced in August. Their press release (hosted on the Intel website with only a brief excerpt listed on GE Healthcare’s newsroom) highlights that they have received full regulatory clearances (FDA? SEC?) and is fully operational. The new company states its purpose is to market current products (still bearing their corporate parents’ names) for remote patient monitoring, independent living and assistive technologies, and secondarily to ‘develop healthcare IT innovations’ as part of the $7.7 billion projected market by 2012.

Interestingly, their new Care Innovations website announces that it will not be fully operational till 18 January: the press release is hosted on Intel’s newsroom and current links for products (Intel Health Guide and Reader; GE QuietCare) return you to their parents’ websites and pages with no mention of Care Innovations save on the Intel sidebar feed. (With five months notice, one wonders why the incomplete synchronization of announcement and website?)

Also notable: not just in name and location only, Intel appears to be the lead entity. Out of the ten leadership positions cited in the release, seven come from Intel, three from GE, none from outside either company. Also for those in the industry who have wondered ‘whither Eric Dishman’, he will hold dual roles as Director of Health Policy for Care Innovations and will continue as an Intel Fellow. (Click on the PDF link at the bottom of the press release for more information on the executives and board, plus ‘milestones’ for both companies in ‘home health’.)