Rolling Into Health Care

Mass High Tech
November 23, 2007

Verizon Communications Inc. wants to use its high-speed Internet service to link health-care providers with patients at their homes.  The service, in development at the corporate level, could provide a powerful boost to the field of telemedicine, health-care experts say.

Verizon has discussed potential service options with Boston's Partners HealthCare System, the operator of Massachusetts General Hospital and several other medical centers in the Bay State, hospital officials confirmed this week.

... "They see an opportunity to work with us," said Joseph Kvedar, director of Partners Center for Connected Health.  "The potential relationships are many, but we haven't ... narrowed the scope to any certain projects we may do together."

Kvedar's group at Partners tests and provides technology that connects clinicians from the hospital system to patients outside of typical medical centers -- often in their homes.  The potential projects with Verizon, he said, could include the use of Verizon's FiOS service to enable remote care of patients with improved video and faster Internet exchanges. 

...Cellular chip maker Qualcomm Inc., based in San Diego, is another tech firm engaging health-care groups in Massachusetts about products tailored for the medical field. Wendy Everett, president of the New England Healthcare Institute (NEHI), said Qualcomm has asked her Cambridge-based nonprofit industry group about the market need for its technology in health care.

"My understanding is that the telecom industry sees the potential for remote patient monitoring primarily through cell phone technology," said Everett.  Qualcomm's technology has the potential to provide a more direct way to send vital health data from patients' homes to clinicians, she added. 

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