IBM, Medtronic partner to develop new diabetes care tools

IBM and Medtronic recently announced their collaboration to bring new research and personal care tools to diabetes care, according to a company press release.

“We are building a secure, open innovation platform that could change the face of diabetes management,” John E. Kelly, III, IBM senior vice president, solutions portfolio and research, said in the release. “Medtronic and IBM can marry the power of analytics, cognitive computing and patient engagement with the world’s most sophisticated diabetes management devices to truly change how people with diabetes live.”

The computing company and the diabetes medical devices company are working together to develop programs for gathering and analyzing information and combining it anonymously with sources such as claims data to improve outcomes and health economics. They are also planning personalized care tools that will support individual patients and providers with real-time data.

“Devices alone cannot transform diabetes care. The combination of leadership technologies, big data, informatics and world-class patient management are all required to drive effective results in diabetes care,” Hooman Hakami, executive vice president and president of the Diabetes Group at Medtronic, said in the release. “Medtronic and IBM intend to bring these capabilities together to pioneer a new level of care that will improve outcomes and lower cost so people living with diabetes can enjoy greater freedom and better health.”