• Financial Times, Friday, April 3, 2009 11 AM

Aiming to capitalize on the growing demand for home-based care, General Electric and Intel will put their combined research and marketing muscle behind devices that enable medical professionals to monitor elderly and chronically ill patients remotely, Justin Baer reports.

Both groups already sell their own line of home-health gear. They've agreed to invest $250 million in the next five years to research new technologies and combine complementary programs already under way at each company. "We are at an inflection point on healthcare," say Intel CEO Paul Otellini.

The home-health monitoring market was expected to swell from $3 billion this year to $7.7 billion in 2012 as the population ages. The partnership will help the two companies' home-health efforts "get bigger, faster", says GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt, while speeding up the development of new generations of devices.

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