Intel, GE Planning Partnership In Health

By DON CLARK and PAUL GLADER

Intel Corp. and General Electric Co. are planning Thursday to announce a collaboration between the two companies in the health-care field.

The companies have scheduled a press conference in New York, hosted by Intel Chief Executive Paul Otellini and GE Chief Jeffrey Immelt, to discuss plans to work together to deliver health-care-related technology, including possible applications for health-care IT and home health monitoring, according to people familiar with the situation.

Intel has been working for several years to build a new business in health care. The company, a giant in computing through its sales of microprocessor chips, has put particular emphasis on technology to help monitor sick or aging people at home, providing information over the Internet to doctors while helping patients avoid the cost of hospital stays.

But the chip maker needs help from entrenched players to help its fledgling effort gain a broader foothold, one person familiar with its thinking said. GE, a major provider of medical-information systems as well as imaging and diagnostic equipment used by many hospitals, would be a logical partner.

In the past, GE has highlighted health-care information technology and home medical monitoring as growth areas. Though the company's health-care revenue grew 2.4% to $17.4 billion in 2008, profit in the segment declined 6.9% to $2.85 billion.

John Dineen, the CEO of GE Healthcare, said in an interview in September that information technology was less than 10% of its business but would be a major engine of growth.

GE already uses some Intel chips in its equipment. But its plans to expand in health-care technology and home monitoring could benefit from a partnership with a technology firm. GE already offers a system called QuietCare that uses wireless motion sensors in a home to track daily activities and communicates the data to servers and computers used by health-care staff.

The collaboration between the companies comes as the Obama administration has made improving the efficiency and lowering the cost of health care a major priority. Intel helped lead the formation of a group called Continua Health Alliance, whose members are working on standards to help medical systems exchange information.

One of the administration's biggest thrusts is "telemedicine," the idea of doctors and other health professionals diagnosing and treating medical conditions remotely -- a focus that puts Intel in "a very good position," said Marc Holland, research director at Health Industry Insights, a unit of the research firm IDC.

Intel also has developed a design for a tablet-style PC used by nurses and other staff in hospitals and sold by partners that include Motion Computing Inc. Mr. Holland noted that Intel already has to make products such as that tablet work with GE information systems in hospitals. If the companies decide to work together in home care, too, he suggests that GE might provide monitoring services for patients -- a bit like the way security services monitor burglar alarms, he said.

People familiar with GE's plans say it is also preparing to launch a new marketing campaign referred to, internally, as "health care reimagined."

Write to Don Clark at don.clark@wsj.com and Paul Glader at paul.glader@wsj.com