Comcast is working on an in-home device to track people’s health
Comcast is working on an in-home device to track people’s
health
Christina Farr MAY 21 2019 3:06 PM EDT
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Comcast is working on an in-home device with a
focus on health monitoring.
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The device will begin pilot-testing this year,
and the intention is to roll it out next year.
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Comcast is already in talks with hospitals about
taking on shared savings — if it
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Brian Roberts, Chairman and CEO of Comcast
Comcast is working on an in-home device to monitor
people’s health, and aims to begin pilot-testing it later this year.
A team under Sumit Nagpal, a senior vice president and
general manager of health innovation at Comcast who previously worked at the
consulting firm Accenture, has been working on the device for more than a year,
according to two people with direct knowledge. Nagpal joined Comcast in
February of this year, according to LinkedIn, to build a strategy and a team
for bringing the new health hardware to market.
These people asked not to be named because they were not
authorized to speak on behalf of Comcast, and Comcast declined to comment.
(Comcast owns NBCUniversal, the parent company of CNBC.)
The device will monitor people’s basic health metrics
using ambient sensors, with a focus on whether someone is making frequent trips
to the bathroom or spending more time than usual in bed. Comcast is also
building tools for detecting falls, which are common and potentially fatal for
seniors, the people said.
Comcast plans to offer the device and related service to
at-risk people, including seniors and people with disabilities, but the timing,
pricing and roll-out plan have not been finalized. It will start to experiment
with pilots, which are not limited to Comcast customers, by the end of 2019,
with potential commercial release in 2020.
Unlike most home speakers, the device won’t be positioned
as a communications or assistant tool, and won’t be able to do things like
search the web or turn lights on and off. But it will have a personality like
Alexa and it will be able to make emergency phone calls in the case of a health
event, the people said.
The device would be a first for Comcast in health, but it
already offers hardware and services focused on home security and automation.
Comcast has experience in voice with a remote that responds to commands, which
people mostly use to search for TV shows and movies. The company began
exploring opportunities in the health sector a few years ago, and last year set
up a partnership with insurer Independence Health Group, which is initially
focused on the group’s employees.
The move would bring Comcast into competition with a
number of technology companies, including Google, Amazon and Apple, which have
also explored how to help older people “age in place,” or live independently
for as long as possible. Google is looking at using its Nest and Google Home
devices in senior living facilities, Apple added fall detection and heart
health tracking to its smartwatch, and Amazon has been exploring opportunities
in tech for the growing aging population for several years.
Comcast might also have an edge with this population
because of its access to the home through its cable and broadband business,
which involves technicians showing up to people’s homes for installation and
upgrades. In theory, technicians could set up the device during those visits.
In addition to developing new hardware, Comcast has been
in talks with several large hospitals, including Rush in Chicago, said a person
familiar with the conversation. The discussions with Comcast have centered
around using the device to ensure that patients don’t end up back in the
hospital after they’ve been discharged. Increasingly, hospitals are getting
penalized by the federal government for failing to ensure that patients don’t
end up right back in the emergency room, and are looking into tools to monitor
patients remotely.
Disclosure: Comcast owns NBCUniversal, the parent company
of CNBC.
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