Qualcomm Drives Wireless Health Technologies with Strategic Investment in AirStrip Technologies

Qualcomm Incorporated has made a significant strategic investment in AirStrip Technologies, Inc, a provider of native mobile solutions. This is in line with Qualcomm’s ongoing investments in emerging technologies and business models with the potential to drive the wireless market. The investment was made through Qualcomm Life Fund,the  investment division of Qualcomm managed by the company’s investment group, although the terms of the deal were not disclosed by either party.  

In a release, AirStrip CEO Alan Portela, said, “AirStrip Technologies has developed and implemented the most sophisticated suite of native mobile solutions available today. We recognize where the future lies for mobility in healthcare: erasing the boundaries to more effectively diagnose and treat patients throughout the continuum of care. We are pleased to announce this investment by the Qualcomm Life Fund, which acknowledges the game-changing potential presented by the AirStrip platform.”

The AirStrip Technologies platform has been designed to enable secure accessing of patient monitoring information from EMRs, labs, clinical information systems and bedside monitoring devices by clinicians. The platform allows easy viewing of the information by physicians, nurses, and case managers who can then interact with the information through mobile devices such as a smartphone and or tablet devices. The company’s mobile solutions are FDA approved and have been developed to be compliant with federal patient privacy standards. Furthermore, the solutions have received the CE Mark certification making them eligible for sale across Europe and other markets.

Jack Young, senior manager at Qualcomm Ventures, said, “Smartphone adoption by physicians is amongst the highest in any given profession. Airstrip Technologies’ solutions can increase efficiency in a resource-constrained healthcare system, improving patient care and communications while reducing medical errors. As the demand for home monitoring and wireless health solutions increases, Airstrip Technologies and Qualcomm Life are well positioned to help customers and patients address this need.”

AirStrip will also be collaborating with Qualcomm Life, Inc., over the setting up of a home health monitoring program. The program will bring together AirStrip’s patient monitoring solution and the Qualcomm 2net Platform. Leveraging Qualcomm Life’s 2net Hub, the collaboration will work towards bringing down readmission rates of patients with congestive heart failure (CHF) by collecting data from home-based medical devices via the wireless medical devices and through AirStrip’s applications to effectively improve patient outcome after their initial discharge.