Qualcomm is ramping its commitment to the e-health market with the establishment of a subsidiary company covering the sector, and a $100 million (€74.5 million) investment pot for wireless health startups.

 

The new business – Qualcomm Life – will take over the operations of the firm’s Wireless Health division, including operation of 2net - a cloud-based platform and hub designed to simplify access to patient information by linking wireless medical devices.

 

Rick Valencia, vice president and general manager of Qualcomm Life, says the new division will ease the burden of technical development for makers of medical devices seeking to incorporate wireless technology. Many vendors have approached the firm seeking assistance “when their own wireless connectivity attempts became untenable due to technology selection errors, un-scalable deployment models and prohibitively high operational support costs,” Valencia states.

 

The platform is currently being trialed by 40 firms, and Qualcomm expects deployments to be boosted by its new $100 million Life Fund, which is being managed by its venture capital arm. Existing investments in five wireless health firms will be folded into the new fund, which aims to promote development of biosensors, remote diagnosis and monitoring equipment, software and IT applications, and health-related data and analysis.