Alcatel-Lucent seeks US telemedicine partner

“[Alcatel’s] contribution has been figuring out how to make this more of a global product as opposed to one that was only suitable in Saskatchewan,” Segel said. “We don’t have anything like this in our product portfolio.”

SaskTel, which jointly owns the intellectual property related to LifeStat, has exclusive rights to sell the service in Canada, though Alcatel-Lucent is searching for service provider partners to deliver it elsewhere, including the US, where a number of mobile operators have expressed interest, Segel said.

The ability of remote health monitoring and management tools to reduce doctor visits has been identified as a large potential source of revenue for telecom service providers. In addition to that savings, Segel said, more effective management of health conditions should rein in healthcare costs as well, simply because it will keep patients healthier.

SaskTel officially launched the Canadian service offering this week, though it has been commercially available there for a few months, following three years of trials. The carrier is selling the service directly to patients, though Alcatel also sees a model for selling to healthcare providers as well. SaskTel is also trialing back-end integration of the service with healthcare providers that would allow health data to automatically be stored with patients’ clinical records.