ISRAEL – GE Healthcare has agreed to invest up to US$50 million in Israeli start-up Pulsenmore in order to enter the homecare segment and facilitate precision health.
The equity investment is intended to accelerate the international acceptance of Pulsenmore’s homecare ultrasound solutions.
It will also help with FDA approval and commercial expansion in the United States.
In addition to the investment, GE will work with Pulsenmore to supply its products in Europe and other markets once the product is commercially available.
Furthermore, the companies will collaborate to create ultrasound-based healthcare offerings for the expanding homecare market.
Pulsenmore is well-positioned for the telehealth market with its new self-operated prenatal home ultrasound solution.
The solution, when connected to a smartphone, enables pregnant women to perform self-scanning for remote clinical analysis by their healthcare provider.
GE Healthcare Ultrasound President and CEO Roland Rott said GE Healthcare sees the prenatal system as a “highly complementary offering” to its own portfolio of women’s health and primary care ultrasound devices including its handheld and cart-based hardware used in hospitals.
A handheld ultrasound device that can be attached to the user’s smartphone and a mobile app that aids the patient in consulting a clinician in offline/online mode are included in the product offering.
The offering also includes a web application for clinician-side interaction with the platform and a software API that facilitates merging the company’s online services with health records.
The two companies expect the homecare market to top US$662 billion by 2027, while telehealth and remote monitoring businesses could grow 30% annually through 2029.
The Pulsenmore device offers regular fetal ultrasound scanning and consultation as an offline application-guided service or online clinician-guided telecommunication service.
Pulsenmore is also developing remote devices for monitoring follicular development among women undergoing in vitro fertilization, as well as offerings aimed at chronic heart failure and end-stage renal disease.
GE Healthcare’s investment comes as telehealth has grown in popularity and demand since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In order to limit the spread of the COVID-19 virus, many patients postponed routine care or turned to telehealth solutions throughout the pandemic.
To keep resources available for higher-acuity COVID-19 patients, healthcare providers temporarily halted elective procedures and limited officer hours.
As a result, telehealth has exploded, and new solutions are constantly being developed.
Pulsenmore’s platform is already being used throughout Israel in collaboration with Clalit Health Services, the country’s largest Health Maintenance Organization (HMO).
Physicians from Israel’s Sheba Medical Center have also adopted the platform, using it to perform ultrasounds on refugees at the Ukraine border as part of its ‘virtual hospital’ initiative.
Last October, GE Healthcare concluded the acquisition of surgical visualization company BK Medical for US$1.45bn in cash.
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