GE Stepped up, Partnering Intel in the Home Health Market

GE Healthcare struck another R&D alliance in the home patient monitoring sector in less than a year after the Quietcare deal. This time, its partner is Intel. Like the Quietcare deal, the partnership also allows GE to co-market Intel’s Health Guide, a home health monitoring gateway product. The two companies will also contribute a combined $250 million over five years on R&D in this field.

Intel is fortunate to land GE as a partner and distributor as the latter’s health industry connections and sales networks are an asset that Intel can’t match. Although I can’t say with 100% confidence that GE Healthcare is fully committed to the technology-assisted home health market, recent events are a strong signal that the company is pursuing this market with earnest interest. What is still in the cloud is whether GE will put its brand on Health Guide as it did with Quietcare’s solution. From the beginning I was a bit confused about Intel’s branding and hardware strategy in this sector. I would consider it a positive if GE takes over the Health Guide’s brand and lets Intel focus more on the hardware performance side.

One thing I don’t agree with in the press release is that the two companies pegged the home health monitoring market at $3 billion today. Either this number includes traditional telemedicine revenues, or it includes revenues from home care services assisted with the home health monitoring technology.