DUBLIN, Apr 28, 2010 -- The TRIL (Technology Research for Independent Living) Centre, Ireland is delighted to announce a new industry partner, GE Healthcare (GE 18.70, -0.56, -2.91%) . TRIL is a groundbreaking research initiative, founded in January 2007 by Intel Corporation and the IDA Ireland (Industrial Development Agency), to explore the physical, cognitive and social consequences of ageing and design technologies to help address them. The addition of GE Healthcare as an industry partner will help TRIL to extend and expand its research programme. GE joins the TRIL Centre as its second industry partner for 2010, alongside co-founder Intel and academic partners University College Dublin, Trinity College Dublin and NUI Galway. GE Healthcare is investing $3 million in the TRIL Centre.
"We are excited about welcoming a new industry partner with the technology expertise and stellar reputation of GE Healthcare," says Dr. Brian Caulfield, Academic Director of the TRIL Centre. "Their focus on innovative thinking and commitment to improving healthcare while reducing costs will make them a valuable contributor to our research efforts."
A key goal of TRIL's research, which brings together world-class industry and academic experts from multiple disciplines, is to enable older people to live independently in the homes of their choice for as long as possible, with the help of technology--and in the process, to help ease the strain on global healthcare systems as the world's population ages. This objective aligns with GE Healthcare's goal of continuously developing innovations focused on reducing costs, increasing access and improving quality and efficiency.
Home health is a key business focus for GE Healthcare. The company recently acquired Living Independently Group, a provider of QuietCare, a passive activity monitoring system used to assist in the care of the elderly. The company is also leading a consortium of private and public sector organizations in a $5 million three-year home health research program funded by the Hungarian government. In April 2009, GE and Intel announced the formation of a healthcare alliance to develop and market technologies for independent living and chronic disease management. As part of this alliance, GE Healthcare markets the Intel(R) Health Guide in the US and UK. The Intel Health Guide is a comprehensive personal health system that combines an in-home patient device -- the Intel(R) Health Guide PHS6000 -- as well as an online interface -- the Intel(R) Health Care Management Suite -- allowing clinicians to monitor patients from their homes and manage care remotely.
Commenting on the announcement, Agnes Berzsenyi, General Manager of GE Healthcare's Home Health business says "We are delighted to be part of the TRIL Centre and to be involved in the groundbreaking research being done there. The world is getting older and this is presenting enormous healthcare challenges in the care of elderly citizens and the prevention and management of chronic disease. We are looking forward to working with TRIL to drive innovation in this emerging area and ultimately transforming the lives of elderly citizens."
Over the last three years, more than 600 older adults have been assessed in the TRIL Clinic and a large number have participated in the TRIL technology home deployment programme. The commitment of GE Healthcare will enable TRIL to expand the pool of participants and build on the accomplishments of the first three years. The addition of GE Healthcare as an industry partner supports TRIL's strategic vision of securing additional industry partners, from SMEs to multinational companies such as GE and Intel, to advance its important research effort.
About GE Healthcare
GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and services that are shaping a new age of patient care. Our broad expertise in medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, drug discovery, biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies, performance improvement and performance solutions services help our customers to deliver better care to more people around the world at a lower cost. In addition, we partner with healthcare leaders, striving to leverage the global policy change necessary to implement a successful shift to sustainable healthcare systems.
Our "healthymagination" vision for the future invites the world to join us on our journey as we continuously develop innovations focused on reducing costs, increasing access and improving quality and efficiency around the world. Headquartered in the United Kingdom, GE Healthcare is a $16 billion unit of General Electric Company (GE 18.70, -0.56, -2.91%) . Worldwide, GE Healthcare employs more than 46,000 people committed to serving healthcare professionals and their patients in more than 100 countries. For more information about GE Healthcare, visit our website at www.gehealthcare.com.
For our latest news, please visit http://newsroom.gehealthcare.com
About Intel
Intel (INTC 22.51, -0.76, -3.25%) , the world leader in silicon innovation, develops technologies, products and initiatives to continually advance how people work and live. Additional information about Intel is available at www.intel.com/pressroom and blogs.intel.com.
Intel in healthcare
Around the world, healthcare costs are rising. Too many people lack access to high-quality healthcare services. Paper-based workflows introduce errors and hamper productivity. Aging populations and swelling rates of chronic disease threaten to overwhelm even the most efficient healthcare systems.
Intel is delivering innovative leaps in digital technologies to help address those challenges.
We share the vision of healthcare leaders who recognize technology's potential to evolve healthcare toward more proactive, consumer-centric models of care as well as the potential to improve the quality, cost, and accessibility of healthcare services. In homes and hospitals, clinics and pharmacies, we collaborate with healthcare leaders to better connect people and information, and enable new models of care.
By helping individuals, families, and the extended healthcare community connect to the right information at the right time, we empower them to make better, more informed decisions--and accelerate the ability to radically improve health and healthcare.
To learn more about Intel in health care, go to www.intel.com/healthcare.
About IDA Ireland
Ireland's inward investment promotion agency, IDA Ireland (Industrial Development Agency) is responsible for the attraction and development of foreign investment in Ireland. IDA's focus is to attract investment that is of high value, requiring high skill levels and a sophisticated business environment.
About TRIL
The TRIL (Technology Research for Independent Living) Centre started as a three-year, $30 million initiative to explore the physical, cognitive and social consequences of ageing and develop technology solutions to address them in 2007. The Centre was originally funded by Intel and IDA Ireland. TRIL brings together a multidisciplinary team of more than 70 researchers from Intel, University College Dublin (UCD), Trinity College Dublin (TCD) and National University of Ireland (NUI) Galway.
The TRIL Centre seeks to enable people to live independently at any age by accelerating understanding of behavioural markers of disease and how technology can be applied to product positive interventions.
Through home-based behavioural assessment, multi-disciplinary research teams identify behavioural markers such as changes in gait, speech patterns, or social interactions that indicate the onset of disease, then create and home-test technology solutions to enable early disease detection, measurement and positive intervention by patients themselves or caregivers. These solutions are shared with other researchers in modular, reusable open-IP tool-kits and also used to inform the home health platform development of Intel and its eco-system collaborators. For more information about the TRIL Centre visit our website at www.trilcentre.org.
SOURCE: GE Healthcare
