Healthcare Technology Featured Article

September 15, 2015

Qualcomm Acquires Capsule Technologie to Merge Patient Data Between Home and Hospital


The Internet of Things (IoT) is revolutionizing how we interact with data and objects in almost every aspect of life, but some of the most profound opportunities for this technology can be found in the medical sector. Healthcare is increasingly being decentralized from hospitals and other facilities and moving into patient’s homes, which has enabled significant improvements to the quality of care provided—yet created a sort of gulf between patient data in these home networks and data sourced from medical devices in hospitals.

Qualcomm Life, the medical subsidiary of wireless technology provider Qualcomm, has specialized in creating an ecosystem of connected health devices in patient homes to enable delivery of intelligent care. In order to merge these offerings into hospital networks it has acquired Capsule Technologie, a company that provides facilities around the world with medical device integration and clinical data management solutions. The combination of the two company’s offerings will enable the formation of a fully connected health ecosystem that flows fluidly between healthcare providers, patients and everything in between.

Qualcomm Life’s flagship product is a home gateway device that collects and encrypts biometric data from patients’ in-home medical devices, where it is then shared in the cloud with healthcare providers. Capsule’s products perform essentially the same function except with in-hospital medical devices; the company’s hardware translates data from medical devices and shares it with backend data management systems.

“We now have the largest ecosystem of connected medical devices with Capsule,” commented Rick Valencia, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Qualcomm Life. “We’re extending our reach from the home to the hospital and all the points in between, so wherever the patient might be. We’ll create the connective tissue to bring all this data back into the system.”

Capsule was purchased from majority stakeholders JMI Equity and Bulger Capital Partners, although the financial details of the agreement were not disclosed. The company will retain its name and operate as a subsidiary of Qualcomm Life, with these newly available resources supporting future developments and improvements to Capsule’s products and services.

“As healthcare continues to move into the home and ambulatory settings and outside of traditional care areas such as the hospital, the convergence of medical device data from wherever the patient is located is critically important,” said Gene Cattarina, CEO of Capsule. “Together, Qualcomm Life and Capsule will power this convergence by making data more accessible and interoperable among care teams to provide true continuity of care at the hospital, in the home and at all points in between.”




Edited by Dominick Sorrentino
Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. [Free eNews Subscription]




SHARE THIS ARTICLE



FREE eNewsletter

Click here to receive your targeted Healthcare Technology Community eNewsletter.
[Subscribe Now]