Print“Qualcomm's growing involvement in the wireless health sector signals just how important the area is becoming as medical device manufacturers, application developers, and healthcare services companies scramble to get a foothold.”
Qualcomm has established a $100 million wireless health venture fund and a new subsidiary to help healthcare companies navigate the complexity of deploying wireless technologies.
The fund, announced at the mHealth Summit near Washington D.C., provides a new umbrella for Qualcomm's previous and future wireless health investments. It also adds fresh money to the growing pool of capital for wireless health startups, bolstered in October by the West Health Investment Fund, which launched a $100 million investment fund in October.
As a key supplier of mobile chips and wireless technologies, Qualcomm's growing involvement in the wireless health sector signals just how important the area is becoming as medical device manufacturers, application developers, and healthcare services companies scramble to get a foothold. General Electric, Intel, and Microsoft have all been active this year in chasing after opportunities in home, hospital, and mobile health technologies.
The consulting firm CSMG predicts that the U.S. mobile health market will grow to $4.6 billion by 2014, while PwC anticipates a $7 billion mobile health market opportunity in the Asia Pacific region just three years later in 2017.
The Qualcomm Life Fund, to be managed by Qualcomm Ventures, has already invested in five wireless health companies, including Telcare, Cambridge Temperature Concepts, WorkSmart Labs, Sotera Wireless and AliveCor, the maker of an iPhone ECG. Burrill & Company, publisher of The Burrill Report, is also an investor in AliveCor.
Qualcomm Life, the new subsidiary, will operate the business formerly known as Qualcomm Wireless Health. Its first product, the 2net Platform and Hub, provides a system designed to interconnect wireless medical devices in a way that makes biometric information easily accessible to device users, their healthcare providers, and caregivers.
Don Jones, vice president of global strategy for Qualcomm Life, says the company believes 2net will "enable a sea change in healthcare, where we observe stressed medical systems burdened by a mounting prevalence of chronic disease.”
Any change that could help diminish the costs of managing the ever-growing ranks of individuals battling chronic disease is likely to be welcomed by payers, who are struggling to keep up.
December 09, 2011
http://www.burrillreport.com/article-qualcomm_formalizes_wireless_health_fund.html
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