GE Healthcare Forms Strategic Relationship with Living Independently Group

GE Healthcare (Chalfont St. Giles, United Kingdom), a unit of General Electric (GE, Fairfield, CT, USA), has announced that it has entered into a distribution and technology collaboration agreement with the Living Independently Group (New York, NY, USA), a leading provider of telecare and passive monitoring systems used to assist in the care of senior citizens. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Under the terms of the agreement, GE Healthcare will distribute and co-market QuietCare, a behavioral remote patient monitoring system developed by Living Independently that uses wireless sensors to non-intrusively track the daily patterns of seniors' activities, discovering atypical activity patterns and behavioral changes that may signal potential health issues or emergency situations. The QuietCare system is used to alert caregivers to these changes in assisted living facilities, senior communities, and private homes. Additionally, as part of the agreement, the companies will utilize GE's Global Research Center and its advanced work in clinical parameters and monitoring algorithms to drive innovation in the field of remote patient monitoring and diagnostics. GE Healthcare will also take a minority ownership stake in Living Independently.

"Demographic changes such as the growing aging population present enormous healthcare challenges in the care of seniors and the management of chronic disease,” said Omar Ishrak, President and CEO of GE Healthcare's Clinical Systems business. "This is consistent with GE's strategy to invest in high growth businesses with global potential. We see enormous potential in senior healthcare monitoring, and the combined talent of the two companies offers the potential to accelerate the development of the business.”

"This is a very exciting development in the future of home healthcare,” said John L. Lakian, Chairman and CEO of Living Independently. "Leveraging the resources of GE Healthcare will allow us to significantly accelerate the evolution and capabilities of our QuietCare system and new applications for remote patient monitoring.”

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