In a move designed to accelerate the development of eldercare technologies, GE Healthcare today announced that it has acquired the provider of QuietCare – the advanced motion sensor technology that sends alerts to caregivers about changes that may signal emergency situations, such as a fall, or an emerging health problem. Since 2008, GE and QuietCare’s owner, Living Independently Group, Inc., have been marketing and co-developing the technology. With the acquisition, the goal is to take the development of the technology to the next phase – and to use GE’s scale to accelerate its adoption globally. The video below, which we first showed when GE announced its recent home health care technology partnership with Intel, provides a terrific overview of how the QuietCare system works in assisted living facilities.
“It solves such a basic need in the marketplace: How do you help seniors stay independent as long as possible, making them feel secure?” says GE’s Stephanie Meyer in the video. “But what was revolutionary about the way were thinking about it was using behavior as a new vital sign. It’s not checking your blood pressure. It’s not checking your weight or so forth, it’s behavior. It’s movement. It’s activity.”
The home health business is a key area of growth, and Living Independently Group’s expertise in passive behavioral monitoring systems is seen as a critical addition to GE’s skills in that arena. In addition to the R&D work underway at GE’s Global Research labs, in November 2008 GE Healthcare announced it was leading a consortium of Hungarian companies and universities to develop remote monitoring technologies for seniors and patients with chronic diseases. And in April 2009, GE Healthcare and Intel announced an alliance to invest $250 million in the development of new technologies to assist independent living for seniors and patients with chronic diseases. GE Healthcare also markets the Intel Health Guide in the United States.
* Read today’s announcement
* Read “Remote healthcare tech: There’s no place like home” on GE Reports
* Read “GE and Intel team-up on home health tech” on GE Reports
* Read stories about our heathymagination strategy filed from our recent showcase
* Learn more about GE’s QuietCare system
Learn more about Global Research’s latest work in these GE Reports stories and videos:
* “GE’s Vscan sequel: Lowering mobile ultrasound costs”
* “$1,000 genome project advances to NIH round two”
* “A look in the lab with GE’s bioscience researchers”
* “Vital signs to go wireless with GE’s body sensors”
* “GE’s software helps Shanghai breathe easier”
