Intel and General Electric, two of the world’s largest companies, have announced an agreement to form a 50/50 joint venture to create a new healthcare company focused on the delivery of telehealth and independent living. The deal will combine assets of GE Healthcare’s Home Health Division and Intel’s Digital Health Group with the new company developing new products, services and technologies.
This move comes a year after the two companies announced a $250 million healthcare alliance to develop solutions for the management of chronic illnesses and independent living. The new agreement will build on this alliance with the two sharing ‘common vision to use technology to bring more effective healthcare into millions of homes and to improve the lives of seniors and people with chronic conditions’. Intel and GE say that with the rise of chronic illnesses amongst the world’s population has given rise to a need for new models of healthcare delivery (read: huge market opportunity).
The new,as yet unnamed, company is expected to be operational by the end of this year pending certain regulatory and other customary closing conditions at which point new market products, services and technologies that promote healthy independent living at home and in assisted living communities will be developed. It will focus on three major segments: chronic disease management, independent living and assistive technologies.
“New models of care delivery are required to address some of the largest issues facing society today, including our aging population, increasing healthcare costs and a large number of people living with chronic conditions,” said Intel President and CEO Paul Otellini. “We must rethink models of care that go beyond hospital and clinic visits, to home and community-based care models that allow for prevention, early detection, behavior change and social support. The creation of this new company is aimed at accelerating just that.”
The new company will have headquarters in the greater Sacramento, Calif. area. Louis Burns, currently vice president and general manager of Intel’s Digital Health Group, will be CEO of the new company, and Omar Ishrak, senior vice president of GE and president and CEO, GE Healthcare Systems, will be chairman of the board.
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