The concept of digital health has been around the globe for quite a while. While technology is at the heart of any digital health system, the related transformations are yet on a slower pace. Digital technologies need to deliver affordable, easy-to-use healthcare solutions to align with the growing needs of patients and healthcare facilities. Factors that influence this lack of acceptance include regulatory factors, such as uncertainties surrounding digital health policies and legislation as well as a perceived lack of accountability within the commercial sector. Substantial efforts, therefore, needed to be made to normalize the use of digital health at a societal level. Processes are also needed to assess the suitability of digital health solutions from the perspective of all stakeholders, especially those representing the patient and clinician end-users groups. To facilitate and ensure wider adaption, the next generation of digital technologies should support and engage users to foster equality and inclusivity, resulting in improved healthcare solutions for all.

This is where the technology company Philips is making a difference. Over the past decade Philips has transformed into a focused leader in health technology. At Philips, the team’s purpose is to improve people’s health and well-being through meaningful innovation. As a technology company, Philips and its brand licensees innovate for people with one consistent belief: there’s always a way to make life better. In that regards, the company today aim to improve 2.5 billion lives per year by 2030, including 400 million in underserved communities. “We see healthcare as a connected whole. Helping people to live healthily and prevent disease. Giving clinicians the tools, they need to make a precision diagnosis and deliver personalized treatment. Aiding the patient’s recovery at home in the community. All supported by a seamless flow of data.”

The Way to Make Life Better

From cardiovascular care to healthcare informatics and diagnostic technologies, Philips has covered them all. In a nutshell, the Philips team work as trusted partners to customers, helping them to adapt to healthcare’s evolving world and to advance digital health transformation at defining moments in a patient’s journey.

At Philips, the team always strive to help make the world healthier and more sustainable through innovation. The company’s HealthSuite digital platform fosters open and collaborative innovation focused on developing breakthrough health, wellness and life science solutions that will transform the way care is delivered.  By connecting devices, unlocking data and fostering collaboration Philips is on a mission to empower new forms of engagement, actionable insights and better health outcomes.

The company’s HealthSuite platform enables developers to create solutions designed to support fast and effective clinical decision-making.  Building on HealthSuite allows clinicians to provide close collaboration with their patients and deliver guidance to the most appropriate care. Health systems also benefit from evidence-based insights to guide organization, clinical and financial decisions. Furthermore, the HealthSuite interoperability supports multiple collaboration applications that help to facilitate communication between care providers and patients (i.e., physician alerts, telehealth consults, self-reporting surveys, etc.). The company’s services can help to provide site-less clinical trials resulting in improved patient adherence to medications that trigger interventions when necessary.

A Comprehensive Radiation Management Program

Radiation Management has been a severe challenge in the modern healthcare solutions space. The first step in building an effective radiation dose management strategy is aggregating complete and accurate data, to measure current performance.

Philips DoseWise Portal is a comprehensive dose monitoring software that automatically collects, measures, analyzes and reports patient radiation dose. It provides powerful radiation exposure analytics to help you meet compliance and regulatory requirements and manage patient safety. DoseWise Portal pairs a vendor-agnostic, web-based software with exceptional professional services that offer deep expertise in clinical applications, IT, imaging, and medical physics. It provides a streamlined, efficient solution to review and manage data on radiation exposure, enabling imaging leaders to take control of their dose programs from a strategic level. The DoseWise Portal is compatible with Philips Enterprise Imaging. Clicking on a clinical image or the patient’s name in the worklist launches the DoseWise Portal corresponding dosimetry page. Clicking on a particular CT image and selecting “dose history” allows you to see the exposure data for that exam.

As a comprehensive solution, DoseWise Portal enables the creation of a comprehensive radiation dose management program that can help healthcare facilities meet compliance and regulatory requirements and manage patient safety. Through a combination of powerful patient radiation exposure analytics and exceptional professional services, this flexible solution provides tools for continuous improvement and informed decision-making support that can also enhance patient and staff experiences.

Managed Technology Services

Philips also offers a comprehensive, outcome-based service and solutions program, designed to assist healthcare facilities in managing and optimizing healthcare technology. Working as an extension of a healthcare facility’s team for equipment procurement, installation, management and upgrades, Philips helps to achieve continual availability, fast response times and enhance the total cost of ownership. The program’s single point of contact engages stakeholders to manage relationship, align around a shared goal and deliver on agreed upon KPIs.  It also offers a unified service agreement matched to the healthcare facility’s needs for streamlined operations.

Moreover, the program is uniquely designed to decrease the TCO by rationalizing the investment and streamlining investments over time.  Philips offers a flexible, vendor agnostic multi-year technology plan and tracks and reports metrics to enable to make data driven investment, have continuous improvement and utilization of assets, and maximize system availability. “Operating as an extension of your team, we will work transparently, fl­exibly and collaboratively to assess and identify your challenges, priorities and define a realistic action plan. In this way, you’ll gain meaningful, actionable insights drawn from our proven experience in Managed Technology Services partnering to help enable technical operational efficiencies and more confident investment. Naturally, all equipment recommendations are vendor neutral and you retain complete control over all key decisions.”

Partnering with healthcare organizations

A ‘new normal’ is being shaped as the healthcare industry experiences an unprecedented time that will profoundly transform operations going forward, while healthcare institutions must continue to perform and deliver towards achieving the Quadruple Aim. Philips remains focused on advancing digital transformation with innovations that truly address the challenges faced by healthcare providers, both amid COVID-19 and beyond.

With the environment and priorities shifting daily, there are a lot of unanswered questions. As a trusted partner, Philips believe there is always a way to make a difference and are here to help the health IT community navigate this new environment. As part of the company’s commitment to provide support and guidance, the team is continuously working to enhance their operations and services to align with the changing industry trends and client requirements. Also, Philips and Marin Health partnered together to transform its technology and facilities while delivering excellent care over the next 15 years.