Advocate Aurora Health and Foxconn Health Technology Business Group will collaborate to develop new technology-driven health care services and tools.
The Taiwanese company and health care system announced today a new partnership that they said will combine Foxconn’s technology solutions with Advocate Aurora’s population health management expertise to improve employee wellness and drive down costs.
Areas of focus of the collaboration will include enhancing preventive care and employer-based wellness programs and investing in precision medicine, the organizations said. They envision applying the “smart city” concept to health care by linking consumers’ health, fitness and dietary data across home, work, mobile, community and clinical environments and making it all accessible via mobile phone and other platforms.
“Technology will play a critical role in the future of health and wellness,” said Nick Turkal, Advocate Aurora Health president and CEO. “We are excited about what we can do together to benefit not only our patients and communities here locally, but how our combined capabilities could potentially have a positive impact on wellness globally.”
Throughout the last year Foxconn officials have discussed their desire to work with other companies and academic institutions to build solutions using 8K+5G technology and artificial intelligence. Health care has been among the industries the company said it would target, along with advanced manufacturing, education, security, entertainment and automotive.
The partnership further solidifies Advocate Aurora’s relationship with the Taiwanese manufacturer, which plans to employ as many as 13,000 people at its Mount Pleasant plant. Advocate Aurora announced plans in May for a $250 million health care facility development in Mount Pleasant, the system’s first project announced since the Downers Grove, Illinois- and Milwaukee-based health systems merged. The project will include a new hospital, two clinics and a medical office building northeast of Interstate 94 and Highway 20.
The deal with Advocate Aurora is the first announced with a Wisconsin company since Foxconn signed a memorandum of understanding last July with Rockwell Automation to implement its industrial IoT technology in Foxconn’s manufacturing operations.
“We are pleased to establish this robust partnership with Advocate Aurora Health with our technology portfolio,” said Leonard Wu, CEO of Foxconn Health Technology Business Group. “We have utilized some of these same technologies with our own employees and are pleased to adopt them here to enhance health from the workplace to the community.”
The organizations said they also plan to invest in emerging medical disciplines like precision medicine and genomics, and in training to develop the future health care workforce in Racine County and elsewhere. Financial details of those investments were not disclosed.
BizTimes reporter Arthur Thomas contributed to this report.
