Qualcomm Forms Medical Connectivity Subsidiary

Qualcomm Inc., the global provider of wireless telecommunications products and services, is making the leap into medical device technology. It recently launched a major initiative, called Qualcomm Life Inc., a new, wholly owned subsidiary of the company, focused on wireless health.

The company is no stranger to the healthcare marketplace, however. The company, has been developing a wireless health strategy for the past 10 years. It has invested in health technology startups, supported a number of major mobile health events, and co-founding various wireless health industry associations. Qualcomm Life Inc. will operate the business formerly known as Qualcomm Wireless Health. The San Diego, Calif.-based company also established the $100 million Qualcomm Life Fund, which will be managed by Qualcomm’s investment group.

The announcement of the new organization came along with the group’s first product line, the 2net platform and hub for use in connection with wireless medical devices. The 2net are now available in the United States and are designed to interconnect wireless medical devices via cloud-based solutions so that biometric information can be accessed by device users, healthcare providers and caregivers. The platform and hub are intended to transfer, store, convert and display medical device data. The company also announced that more than 40 customers and collaborators are either integrating with or considering the 2net ecosystem, creating an interoperable network of medical devices, mobile medical applications and health services companies.

Some of the 40 companies that have already signed on as partners for Qualcomm Life include: A&D Medical, Advanced Warning Systems, AirStrip Technologies, Asthmapolis, AT&T, BiancaMed, BodyMedia, Emergency Medical Services Corporation, Entra Health Systems, Ingram Micro, Midmark Corporation, Hello Health, Nonin Medical, Numera, ResMed, U.S. Preventive Medicine and Venture Corporation.

The company plans to offer the 2net platform in Europe sometime next year.

“Qualcomm Life was founded, in part, to assist medical device manufacturers who approached Qualcomm for help when their own wireless connectivity attempts became untenable due to technology selection errors, unscalable deployment models and prohibitively high operational support costs,” said Rick Valencia, vice president and general manager of Qualcomm Life. “Our services, including integration on the 2net Ppatform, remove the burden for medical device manufacturers of a large technical development effort, providing integration with mobile carriers and solving the operational complexities of supporting wireless medical device data in the field.”

Don Jones, vice president of global strategy and market development for Qualcomm Life, said the his firm’s new technology and medical device connectivity will result in a “sea change” in healthcare, nothing that he and others have observed “stressed medical systems burdened by a mounting prevalence of chronic disease Already, several members of the 2net ecosystem are able to provide remote monitoring functionality for chronic disease management, enhancing the quality of care for their patients.”

On the 2net platform, data is obtained from a patient’s medical device through several gateways, such as the 2net Hub, a mobile phone, another cellular-enabled device or application programming interfaces that connect to the customer service platform. Once the data is acquired from the medical device, it is encrypted and then stored in the 2net platform over a cellular connection. After the patform has received the transmission, patient medical device data is transferred to the manufacturers’ interface of choice for the end-user. The 2net platform is designed to meet HIPAA security requirements and is ISO 13485 certified, meaning it aligns with the quality requirements of U.S. and international regulatory agencies in the healthcare industry, executives noted.

The 2net platform and hub are individually listed with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as medical device data systems. The 2net hub plugs into a standard electric outlet and connects to integrated partner medical devices via shortwave radio, uploading biometric data over the cellular network to the 2net platform’s data center, where it can be transferred to the manufacturer-chosen interface, for access by the user.

Jones said the 2net hub provides a “plug-and-play connectivity solution” for medical device manufacturers looking to integrate their devices with the health network and it enables healthcare services companies to kit together disease management solutions based on multiple medical devices that can communicate with one another and with a single user interface for patients, their providers and caregivers.

The Qualcomm Life Fund will invest in wireless health services and technology adoption. Qualcomm Ventures has already invested in five wireless health companies—Sotera Wireless, Telcare, AliveCor, Cambridge Temperature Concepts and WorkSmart Labs—and these investments will be part of the fund.

The areas of specific interest to the fund range from personal wellness to disease management. Investments are expected to be made in a variety of areas, including:

• Biosensors or devices for vertically focused applications like chronic disease care, medication compliance and fitness or wellness;
• Integrated system providers that provide remote diagnosis or monitoring, or that specialize in independent living;
• Software health IT applications; and
• Health-related informatics/analytics.

On the heels of Qualcomms announcement, Midmark Corp, of Versailles, Ohio, released plans to wirelessly integrate the firm’s home health evices onto the 2net platform.

The first product selected by Midmark for evaluation of this technology is the Midmark SleepView Monitor, a product recently released in collaboration with Cleveland Medical Devices Inc. The SleepView Monitor enables diagnostic testing for obstructive sleep apnea in the patient’s home, providing a convenient and cost-effective alternative to an overnight stay in a sleep lab.

“With the impending physician shortage and cost pressures facing healthcare, Midmark is committed to not just enabling efficient care delivery within the exam room, but wherever healthcare can be delivered most effectively,” said Dr. Thomas D. Schwieterman, Midmark’s medical director. “By testing wireless technologies with medical devices such as SleepView, Midmark’s goal is to enable physicians to practice better medicine as data can be collected from outside the office and analyzed ahead of the next encounter with the patient.”