Updated with comments from Qualcomm and Capsule Tech
Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM) said yesterday its subsidiary Qualcomm Life has purchased medical data management company Capsule Tech for an undisclosed amount.
The San Diego, Calif.-based company said the acquisition will allow Qualcomm Life to expand from into hospitals, taking over Capsule’s 1,930 hospital clients in 38 countries.
“For Qualcomm Life, finding capsule as an established, well executed technology that’s already operating in 2,000 hospitals was really an exciting acquisition opportunity and fits so perfectly with the overall strategy of the internet of medical things,” Qualcomm Life chief medical officer Dr. James Mault told MassDevice.com in an interview.
The company put together an M&A strategy around creating an ‘internet of medical things’, Mault said.
“We really see healthcare as a continuum of information and most importantly of a patient who can be found in a lot of different settings, from hospital to sub-acute facilities to a doctors office to the home,” Mault said. “And really, at the end of the day, what’s important is that information about a patient collected by devices can be captured in any of those settings.”
“Qualcomm is focused on strengthening its position in specific internet of everything verticals, like healthcare. The acquisition of Capsule expands the breadth of our healthcare platform, enabling us to provide connectivity solutions for the entire care continuum and create one of the world’s largest connected health ecosystems. This will be an important step in advancing the Internet of Medical Things,” president Derek Aberle said in a press release.
Capsule’s medical device integration and clinical data management platforms are used for for data collection, electronic medical records and health IT system integration, according to Quallcomm. The company said it will integrate the systems with a network of home health ecosystems to expand coverage for patients and users both in and outside of hospital environments.
The addition, Mault said, would allow Qualcomm to take its 2net system, which captures and collects data from medical devices at home, and connect it with Capsule’s devices in the hospital which offer similar services in the institutional setting.
“Now with Qualcomm bringing in the capsule capability and being able to combine it with the 2net system, we offer pretty much one-stop shopping for device connectivity from hospital to home and everything in between,” Mault said.
“As health care 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. 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,” Capsule CEO Gene Cattarina said in a press release.
The companies are meeting and organizing a strategy for integration of their systems, Capsule Tech marketing and product management veep Kevin Phillips told MassDevice.com. The companies are hopeful that they will have an articulated plan and roadmap by next February, Philips added.
In April, Capsule Tech said it partnered with Masimo (NSDQ:MASI) on its latest SmartLinx patient-monitoring system.
The company said its new SmartLinx Vitals Plus Patient Monitoring System will utilize Masimo’s SET Measure-through Motion and Low Perfusion technology, which monitors oxygen levels in the blood, and CapsuleTech’s SmartLinx Neuron 2 mobile clinical computer. The latest system will enable caregivers to monitor patient oxygenation levels, pulse rates and perfusion indexes.