Yahoo Finance Medtronic, IBM Health Unit Tie Up for Diabetes Management - Analyst Blog
Medical technology giant Medtronic plc MDT has entered into a strategic tie-up with information technology giant – International Business Machines Corporation’s IBM Watson Health unit. Per the agreement, the organizations will come together to integrate IBM’s powerful analytics and cognitive computing with diabetes medical devices and health data provided by Medtronic.
The collaboration is expected to bring forth a next generation diabetes management solution which will provide personalized treatment to patients utilizing Medtronic’s diabetes solution.
Notably, IBM has launched the World Health business unit on Apr 13, 2015, to help patients, physicians, researchers and insurers use data to achieve better health and wellness for all. It is worth mentioning that this unit’s Watson Health Cloud platform allows its clients, partners and academic researchers to access the world's most comprehensive view of aggregated clinical, research and social health data.
Currently, the two companies are analyzing varied approaches to enroot diabetes care management solutions which, in turn, will enhance patient outcome and health economics. Moreover, through this collaboration, Medtronic aims to capitalize on IBM’s Watson Health Cloud platform to improve its and its partners' closed loop algorithms, which act like a healthy pancreas.
We believe by leveraging this secure, open innovation platform of IBM, Medtronic claims to change the face of diabetes management by providing real-time, personalized health data to healthcare providers and their patients; thereby improving care efficiency and patient outcomes.
As per the estimates of International Diabetes Federation (IDF), over 387 million people have been diagnosed with diabetes across the world, management of which is becoming incredibly complex and expensive for healthcare enterprises. Evidently, the global health expenditure to treat and manage diabetes was almost $612 billion in 2014.
Earlier this month, Medtronic purchased Dutch diabetes clinic and research center – Diabeter – to establish itself in the diabetes integrated care model approach. This acquisition marked the company’s attempts to expand its presence in integrated health solutions, in line with its economic value strategy of becoming a leader in value-based healthcare.
This collaboration with IBM marks yet another milestone for Medtronic, taking it closer to its aim of transforming diabetes care worldwide. Medtronic, by expanding access, integrating care and improving outcomes, seeks to offer the best standards of care delivery to its diabetic customers. We believe this collaboration will also reduce the overall cost of the healthcare industry.
With an alarming increase in the diabetic patient population across the globe each year, Medtronic's diabetes business is also flourishing. This business segment delivered a strong performance in the third quarter of fiscal 2015, with international revenue growth of 12%, of which 36% growth came from emerging markets.
Currently, the stock carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked medical products stocks are LeMaitre Vascular, Inc. LMAT, SurModics, Inc. SRDX and Phibro Animal Health Corporation PAHC. Both the stocks sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).
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