Qualcomm Life, WebMD announce partnership March 04, 2013 Eric Wicklund, Editor, mHIMSS 0 71 9 With roughly 220 medical device partners plugged into the 2net hub, Qualcomm Life is ready to take its home-based telemedicine platform to the next level – the consumer.
Enter WebMD. The two healthcare giants announced a partnership today that will link the country's top online producer of consumer-oriented health information with the 2net platform, giving consumers access to a wide array of connectivity solutions. Data passed on from 2net will be stored in the WebMD Health Cloud platform. "We need to have choices for consumers," said William Pence, WebMD's executive vice president, chief operating officer and chief technology officer. "You can't just walk in there with one sensor in hand." "This is a big step forward for us," added Rick Valencia, Qualcomm Life's vice president and general manager, who sees WebMD as providing the educational piece to the mHealth puzzle. "This (partnership) puts all of these tools in one easily accessible place … for consumers and providers." Unveiled a little more than a year ago at the 2011 mHealth Summit, the 2net hub has been gaining traction as an FDA-listed Class 1 medical device data system for medical device manufacturers, app developers and healthcare providers, offering connectivity for a wide array of medical devices and apps. Valencia said the healthcare industry's emphasis on accountable care and meaningful use has prompted providers to take a serious look at remote managed care, and a platform like the 2net hub gives them the foundation upon which to build any number of programs. Pence says the partnership hinges on combining WebMD's resources with Qualcomm's connectivity and data streams, giving consumers and clinicians not just access to the raw data but the means to derive meaningful conclusions from it. "It's not just about dropping (that data) in front of them and letting them go with it," he said. "We're adding context and insight. … This isn't just a science project for users."
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