LifeCOMM
The Baby Boomer Wave
A wave of 70 million aging baby boomers is poised to soon flood the struggling national health care system, overwhelming already strained medical resources. LifeCOMM, a soon-to-be launched Qualcomm-founded company, is positioned to play a major role in helping to relieve some of the pressure on the health care system.
“ Today, we primarily use our phones for communication, information gathering and entertainment, but LifeCOMM wants to transform our phones into ‘in-the-hand’ toolsets that can help us maintain our good health or manage a condition we may already have. ”
- Paul HedtkeSenior Director of Business Development
“I am a baby boomer myself,” says Paul Hedtke, senior director of business development and Qualcomm lead for the LifeCOMM initiative since its inception in 2005. “Like millions of other Americans, I’m at that stage of life where my health is more top-of-mind than when I was younger. Also, I have aging parents for whom I am taking on an ever-increasing role as a caregiver. With the LifeCOMM initiative, we’re creating solutions that will help us manage our own health, as well as that of our loved ones.”
LifeCOMM and the “Disease Care” System
“The current health care system is really a ‘disease care’ system, designed to treat disease only after it has manifested itself,” explains Hedtke. One primary focus of LifeCOMM is to create tools that will help individuals manage and treat chronic conditions like diabetes, asthma and, of course, that ‘disease’ no one is immune to—old age. LifeCOMM will also create consumer solutions to facilitate prevention, as well as treatment.
By leveraging Qualcomm’s wireless technology expertise and partnering with major players in the health care and medical device industries, LifeCOMM will provide valuable, cost-effective “health and wellness” services that couldn’t be delivered at an affordable price by the traditional health care system.
“Fundamentally, we want to take advantage of the fact that consumers walk around all day with a cell phone,” Hedtke explains. “Today, we primarily use our phones for communication, information gathering and entertainment, but LifeCOMM wants to transform our phones into ‘in-the-hand’ toolsets that can help us maintain our good health or manage a condition we may already have.”
Closing the “Continuum of Care” Gap
A fundamental weakness in the current health care system is the large gap in the continuum of care—a critical disconnect between what the health care industry is able to deliver and the needs of an aging population.
Most people, even those with diagnosed chronic conditions, visit their health care professionals only occasionally. These visits typically last no more than a few minutes. Between these short and infrequent visits, people are pretty much on their own to implement the directions proscribed by the attending physicians or nurses.
“LifeCOMM seeks to fill this gap in the continuum of care by providing mobile device delivered health services that will assist a person in complying with his health care professional’s proscribed care regimen. It’s like putting a nurse that can monitor and evaluate various bio-measurements in that person’s hand. Based on that recurring evaluation, a ‘virtual nurse’ will assist him with advice, information, and education to help him improve and maintain his health-state.”
Innovation. Execution. Credibility.
For over 20 years, Qualcomm has proven its ability to create and implement innovative wireless technology applications. Hedtke was surprised by the level of credibility Qualcomm enjoys in a completely different industry than the one the Company is typically associated with. “From the beginning of the LifeCOMM project, I was amazed by the receptivity we encountered from the many organizations that we will need to partner with in order to bring our envisioned solutions to market,” he says. It’s gratifying to have medical device technology and health services organizations look to us, a wireless technology company, for leadership in their own market space.”
