Dive Brief:
- With digital technologies becoming ubiquitous in healthcare, IBM and Aramark are teaming up to support maintenance and security of connected medical devices.
- Security expert IBM and Aramark, which sells facilities management technologies to healthcare and other industries, will use predictive analytics to identify cyber threats, device malfunctions and maintenance needs.
- “Together, we will deliver a variety of support solutions to help optimize, maintain, secure, and support the connected medical devices ecosystems of today’s healthcare providers for the good of medical professionals and their patients,” the companies wrote in a blog post.
Dive Insight:
By way of example, the companies note analytics could help predict when an MRI or X-ray machine is straining and signal a technician to have it repaired or replaced before the problem impacts patient care.
“As IBM and Aramark move forward together, we are reminded that this partnership is built on a collective commitment to help healthcare providers deliver greater efficiencies to their clinical and enterprise IT support, optimize system reliability through proactive support, and better address cybersecurity risks through regular, comprehensive assessments of critical network infrastructures,” the companies said.
The announcement comes as other tech giants making waves in healthcare.
Last week, Microsoft announced it is forming a new unit, Microsoft Healthcare, and bringing on two industry pros to help lead healthcare initiatives. Jim Weinstein, former CEO and president of Dartmouth-Hitchcock healthcare system, is vice president of Microsoft Healthcare and head of innovation and health equity. Joshua Mandel, who last led Alphabet life sciences division Verily’s health IT ecosystems work, will serve as Microsoft Health’s chief architect.
The new unit will integrate the research focus of Microsoft’s Healthcare NExT initiative with strategic partnerships and drive a “cross-company strategy for healthcare and life sciences,” Peter Lee, corporate vice president of Microsoft’s AI & Research division, which will include the new team, wrote in a blog post.
In May, Microsoft, Adobe and Change Healthcare teamed up to develop a tool to help providers understand how their patients engage with healthcare. Change is hoping the product will help providers in their revenue cycle and patient relationship management efforts.
Meanwhile, Apple — which reportedly is working on a number of healthcare projects — recently announced that it has nearly 500 hospitals and clinics contributing medical records to its updated Health Records section for the iPhone. Among them are heavy hitters like Geisinger, Johns Hopkins Medicine, Cedars-Sinai and Dignity Health.