Qualcomm Life, a medical care subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated, announced on Monday, Sept 14, that it has purchased Capsule Technologie, which is medical IT company that enables hospitals and other health care institutions collate and manage information generated by medical devices.
The primary offering of Qualcomm Life is its 2Net technology, which is a home portal equipment that collates and enciphers biometric information from the medical devices of patients. These data will then be sent to a cloud server so that the concerned healthcare professionals may be able to access it. With this, the company's 1,930 medical facility clients across 38 countries are able to monitor the health of their patients even if they are just in their homes.
Capsule Tech, which is a US company based in Massachusetts, offers similar services as Qualcomm; the difference is that the medical equipment are physically situated inside clinics and hospitals. Their technology allows Electronic Medical Record (EMR) or digital patient charts, health IT system and different data to be incorporated into one hospital system. Through this, the different departments of the hospital concerned for the care of a particular patient may be provided with timely clinical data that are also sent to a backend system.
"Qualcomm is focused on strengthening its position in specific Internet of Everything verticals, like healthcare. The acquisition of Capsule expands the breadth of our healthcare platform, enabling us to provide connectivity solutions for the entire care continuum and create one of the world's largest connected health ecosystems. This will be an important step in advancing the Internet of Medical Things," said Derek Aberle, president, Qualcomm Incorporated.
The concurrence of medical data of patients wherever they may be is a critically important factor that must be considered as they move from hospitals and healthcare facilities to their homes and other ambulatory or outpatient settings, said Gene Cattarina,the CEO of Capsule. Through the enjoined power of Qualcomm and Capsule, the need for medical data convergence may be more easily attained as the two companies make the information widely available and interoperable among health care teams. Through this, the patients will be ensured that continuity of care may be achieved whether they are in the normal health facility setting, in the home and other locations in between.
The financial details of the purchase were not made available.
