Health & Life Sciences

Renovating an Antiquated Health Care System

Qualcomm pioneered the wireless health care market in 2003, when it partnered with CardioNet to introduce a fully mobile, continuous cardiac monitoring service for diagnostics. Since then, Qualcomm has identified additional opportunities where wireless technology can drive new clinical, diagnostic and therapeutic management applications.

“ I think this compression of time is really going to contribute to the revolution of the health care industry. When wireless technology and connectivity become integral to the health care system, critical information from patients will get to health care providers more quickly—and vice versa ”

- Don Jones

Vice President of Business Development for Qualcomm’s Health & Life Sciences group

“I believe wireless technology can transform an antiquated health care industry,” says Don Jones, vice president of business development for Qualcomm’s Health & Life Sciences group.

Partnerships and the Personal Health Performance Market

The full realization of these new opportunities has required a new level of collaboration between business, medical, and scientific leaders. “Qualcomm is successful because we innovate, execute, and partner,” says Jones. “It’s partnerships that we’re really focusing on here.”

By working with companies that represent industries atypical of its traditional partners—medical device manufacturers, health information technology enterprises, pharmaceutical corporations, and clinical trial firms—Qualcomm is enabling a new “personal health performance” market. This market is an integrated ecosystem of innovative technology that will bring health, wellness and fitness applications to mobile devices.

These partnerships are nurtured through the efforts of four entities in the ecosystem:

Wireless Technology and Health Management

Wireless health solutions empower individuals by providing feedback loops using biometric diagnostic data received by a wireless device, such as a cell phone or sensors placed on (or even in) the body. Data can be viewed by the individual or remotely reviewed by a health care professional. The individual receives input from his health provider and, at the same time, can conveniently monitor his own health performance and use that information to adjust his behavior, a technique called “course correcting.”

Correcting the Course

Clint McClellan, senior director of market development, offers a personal scenario. “My brother was recently diagnosed with high blood pressure. We’re identical twins, so I know that whatever happens to him health wise, will most likely happen to me. Why do I need to wait six months or a year to see a doctor to tell me this? What if I had a device or software on my phone, connected to a sensor that I could use to conveniently track my own blood pressure stats and other vitals throughout the day? I could see for myself how my blood pressure responded when I drank a lot of coffee or was under a lot of stress. I could track this over days, weeks—or even months—to see how my health was affected when I modified my behavior by adjusting my caffeine intake or adopting some stress-management techniques. It is this power to course correct, enabled by wireless technology that we want to put in the hands of the consumer.”

These wireless health solutions will be manifested through four key platforms:

The Compression of Time

For Jones, one of the most exciting effects of these wireless health care solutions will be the overall increase in the pace of the whole system. “I think this compression of time is really going to contribute to the revolution of the health care industry,” he says. “When wireless technology and connectivity become integral to the health care system, critical information from patients will get to health care providers more quickly—and vice versa. The right things are going to happen faster—and this acceleration is going to affect the prevention and treatment of our most significant health risks.”

Print
Send