Philips establishes European telemedicine joint venture

Royal Philips Electronics has taken an 80% stake in a joint venture with SHL TeleMedicine to develop new markets for cardiology telemedicine products and services across Europe. The goal is to establish medical call centers and remote monitoring services for people with cardiac disease. The venture is headquartered in the Netherlands and managed by a joint Philips/SHL team. SHL, an Israeli provider of personal telemedicine systems and call center services, has the option of increasing its stake to 35% in the future. The company claims more than 55,000 subscribers to its services in Israel and already oversees operations in the U.K., Portugal, and Croatia through similar joint-venture arrangements with other partners.