Live from the mHealth Summit, Washington DC: Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs (pictured) used his keynote to explain how mobile health fits into the vendor’s bigger picture of M2M technology, and the significance of its announcement  at the summit earlier this week.

The company announced on Monday a new subsidiary called Qualcomm Life as well as a US$100 million investment fund for the sector. The subsidiary’s first product is called the 2net platform and is an attempt to standardise wireless connectivity in the field. “There are lots of choices for the [medical device] manufacturer who has to decide how to get their device online,” said Jacobs. The 2net platform is an attempt to simplify the options. It sits between the medical device and the mobile network and will route data to patients and doctors.

More generally Qualcomm sees mobile health as part of a M2M future along with other sectors such as energy. In fact, said Jacobs, "everything will be connected," possibly including humans themselves for certain medical applications. And Qualcomm is betting that consumers will accept this change in the same way as they do standard communications today. In the next five to ten years patients will have always-on connectivity to a healthcare professional in the same way today they have access to family and friends, said Jacobs.