Insight into the development trend of health technology, how does Philips play with "digital transformation"?

*For medical professionals only

Insight into the development trend of health technology, Philips presented a complete set of integrated information solutions to the HIMSS 2022 Global Annual Conference.

With the gradual development of medical information technology, the world is rapidly entering a new era of telemedicine, cloud computing, big data, precision medicine and population health management. Competition in China's medical device market is also becoming increasingly fierce, the aging trend and chronic diseases are high, and the demand for mobile nursing and home care is increasing; the outbreak of the epidemic has promoted the application of digitalization and 5G technology, and the digitization and intelligence of medical devices have become the general trend.

As Philips Global CEO Marriott Said at this year's ViVE Health Information Technology Conference in Miami: "Inequalities between patients are widening, and healthcare is facing the threat of dwindling funding and severe shortages of medical staff." Healthcare companies are also facing unprecedented challenges, which require new strategies to fundamentally address this breakthrough in supply and demand. ”

To play with "digital transformation", it is not just to innovate in technology and products, but to fundamentally realize the self-innovation of business philosophy - not only to provide a single product, but to provide comprehensive solutions with the actual clinical needs of hospitals and patients as the "indicator". Digital transformation is not a one-day effort, nor can it be achieved overnight, it is a gradual, continuous and iterative process. Therefore, it is foreseeable that fully embracing the wave of digitalization will become the "main theme" that Philips has adhered to for a long time.

From a single device vendor

to providers of integrated solutions

As a global leader in health technology, Philips has always maintained a high degree of market sensitivity to respond to the emerging new demands. At present, the shortage of global medical resources and the urgent needs of customers for medical informatization have prompted Philips to promote its own digital transformation and upgrading more quickly, and even the digital transformation of the medical industry.

Roy Jakobs, Global Head of Philips Connected Care, said at the HIMSS Global Conference 2022: "During the COVID-19 pandemic, we need to complete our digital transformation faster and help our customers use digital technologies in the clinic. Healthcare organizations are facing multiple challenges ranging from staff shortages and data security to patient care gaps, and it's more urgent than ever how we work with our customers to meet their changing needs in operations and patient care. ”

How to seize opportunities in the new market pattern and lead the future of the medical industry has become a common proposition for all medical ecosystems. Philips' answer is to be value-oriented and complete digital transformation, from a traditional medical device manufacturer to a leading health technology company driven by data and technology.

Medical imaging equipment has relatively high technical barriers in many segments of the medical device industry, which plays a key supporting role in medical diagnosis. At present, more than 80% of the data in medical data comes from medical images, and 70% of clinical diagnoses rely on medical images. As a long-established medical device supplier, imaging devices have always been the trump card of Philips' unique medical device industry. In the era of intelligence, a single equipment supply can no longer meet the needs of digital comprehensive diagnosis and treatment in hospitals.

Therefore, in the past few years, Philips has begun to take software development and AI as the focus of strategic development, investing nearly 1.8 billion euros in research and development every year, of which 60% is used for software and AI development, starting a series of business transformation characterized by digital innovation and artificial intelligence technology applications, transforming from a single equipment provider to an integrated solution provider of integrated intelligent devices, systems, software and services, going hand in hand in hardware innovation and information innovation, providing integrated hardware for medical institutions. Integrated solutions for software and services.

Break down data and information silos

Build a "cloud platform" to boost telemedicine

As we all know, China's medical system is often divided according to diseases and diseases, and various barriers and islands make the data and information of different departments of the hospital not shared; the process from disease occurrence and evolution to treatment and rehabilitation is also very fragmented, restricting the treatment effect and affecting the rehabilitation of patients. Digitalization and information transformation is an effective means to solve the shortage and imbalance of medical resources in China, in the face of the massive image data in the medical industry and the characteristics of "low access frequency" and "high importance" of data, the "cloud" on medical big data has become an inevitable development trend.

As early as 2018, Philips joined hands with Shenzhou Medical to create a comprehensive solution based on the "cloud platform", "Shenfei Cloud". After years of development, Shenfeiyun can currently provide intelligent imaging, intelligent radiotherapy and digital imaging integrated solutions for hospitals of different grades, and has served more than 1,000 medical institutions. In 2022, Shenfei Cloud and industry partners launched Shenfei Cloud LungAI and Shenfei Cloud CFFR services, officially upgraded to the 5.0 intelligent diagnosis and treatment ecological platform. In the future, Shenfeiyun will continue to focus on the diagnosis and treatment of medical imaging, and continue to explore cooperation with industry partners to launch more intelligent services on the Shenfeiyun platform to empower clinical practices and build a cloud health ecosystem.

Compared with European and American countries, China is more vast, the population base is also very large, the uneven distribution of medical resources is more serious, the top medical resources are often concentrated in first-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, and the medical resources in counties and rural areas are relatively poor. In the context of such an era, telemedicine has also become an important way to solve the shortage of medical resources in China. In this regard, Philips has created the Lumify 5G portable ultrasound diagnostic system, which integrates hardware, software and service innovation, can provide professional-grade high-definition imaging, break the limitations of the use space and the use of personnel through convenient remote connection, and provide a high-quality remote diagnosis experience for patients in poor medical conditions.

The emerging market represented by China is the world's most potential medical device market, and the growth rate in recent years is higher than the world average, but the technology and industry developed by Western developed countries such as cloud platform and telemedicine for many years are still relatively unfamiliar technical means in China, and there is a large space for development. How to flexibly adopt digital means to efficiently solve the imbalance of medical resources in China will become a key factor for medical enterprises to maintain their advantages in the fierce market competition.

Take the path of digital transformation of China Model

"In China, for China"

Riding on the east wind of digital technology, most medical companies are constantly increasing investment in research and development, integrating digital technology with medical device products, and launching high-tech device products and integrated solutions with digital attributes. The transformation and upgrading of the internal organizational structure and the construction of the external digital ecosystem will become the source of motivation for enterprises to always maintain a leading position in this digital race.

In recent years, the aging of Chinese population, the high incidence of chronic diseases, the huge pressure on national medical insurance, and the new crown epidemic have also caused great pressure on public health; at the same time, it is gratifying that China also has a vibrant digital innovation ecology in the medical industry, which has become a powerful force that multinational enterprises can rely on in China.

In the face of the challenges and needs of China's medical system, it is not advisable to fight alone and alone, Philips is committed to exerting "open innovation" and "platform thinking", combined with the entire ecosystem, for specific diseases and clinical applications, to promote cross-border cooperation. For example, Philips and Boshi Medical cooperated to integrate the radiotherapy automatic target mapping system with the Imaging2Plan system, which effectively improved the accurate, fast and efficient performance of the radiotherapy integration system; in addition, Philips cooperated with Dawei Medical to build a "digital heart grid overall solution" suitable for outpatient, emergency, inpatient ward, emergency center, community, family and other hospital and other hospital and outdoor scenarios, and promoted hierarchical diagnosis and treatment to help grass-roots hospitals provide homogeneous medical services for a wider range of people.

Philips' localization process is accelerating, not only in the field of localization manufacturing, but also in the integration of global and local resources, and comprehensively increase R&D innovation and investment in the Chinese market. With the support of the global headquarters, Philips will also lay out three major innovation centers in China - Shenzhen Innovation Center, Suzhou Innovation Center and Shanghai Innovation Center - to enhance local innovation capabilities and better serve local customers.

Digital transformation is an irreversible development trend in the healthcare system and an important driving force for the transformation of the medical system to a "value-based" model – which is also philips' value orientation: "Let 'technology' truly serve Chinese medical staff and patients, and improve the efficiency and quality of medical system services." ”

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