Intel and GE Expand Their Home Health Portfolio

Intel-GE Care innovations, a joint venture of Intel Corp. and GE Healthcare to enhance and market their respective home health and independent living applications, has introduced Care Innovations Connect, a wellness communications kiosk and social networking hub for senior citizens and their caregivers.

Placed in seniors' homes, Connect enables caregivers to monitor wellness through questionnaires, medication reminders, and cognitive fitness games, such as trivia or card matching. Seniors can use the device to receive residential community information such as a calendar of social events, and to communicate with others through a private social network. Evangelical Homes of Michigan was a pilot site.

Other Intel-GE products include Intel Health Guide, a touch-screen home-based vital signs monitoring device with videoconferencing capability; GE Quiet Care, which uses motion sensors throughout a home to "learn" a resident's daily activities and alert caregivers if the activities are not being done; and Intel Reader, which converts printed text to digital text then reads it aloud to the user. More information is available at careinnovations.com.