Rx: High-quality healthcare at lower cost

Picture this: People getting healed even before they get sick. Patients being seen by their doctors without leaving home. And life-saving medical decisions being made on the spot because all the information you need is at your fingertips.

You can only be thankful for Philips’ pioneering healthcare technologies, which are really more than state-of-the-art — they’re state-of-the-heart, putting the patient and care provider at the center of everything.

Last November, Philips, global leader in healthcare, lighting, and consumer lifestyle, flew a group of Asia Pacific journalists, including this writer, to Chicago, USA to experience — up closer and very personal — some of its most advanced medical technologies. As if that wasn’t awesome enough, the press trip coincided with the world’s largest medical technology conference, the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) being held in Chicago.

But let’s KISS (keep it short and sweet, of course!). In our all-too-brief stay (sigh!) in oh-so-cold but so-very-chic Chicago, we saw — and were awed by — the following:

• The digital hospital. We saw with our own eyes how medical imaging technology has achieved unprecedented performance in terms of resolution, sensitivity, and speed, evolving into powerful tools for imaging physiological processes.

• Hospitals designed around patients. We visited the world’s first Ambient Experience medical suite at the Advocate Lutheran Children’s Hospital on Dempster Street, Park Ridge, Illinois. It’s a suite life at this hospital, with its more than relaxing and entertaining (amusing is certainly the last word you’d describe a hospital) ambience. A child (and the child in us adults) will simply be amused to watch the figures (like fish) being projected inside the room while holding his breath during a medical procedure. And that, too, amuses parents, who don’t have to have their children sedated, as the unique Ambient CT and MR Experience reduces children’s anxiety, and better exams are delivered in less time.

• New healthcare technologies, from treatment to prevention. We had the great opportunity to see some of the new healthcare technologies being developed by Philips Research. Always two steps ahead, Philips Research is targeting the development of new diagnostic tests that can not only be performed in hospital laboratories but also at the patient’s bedside. Here’s more: In addition to speeding up the diagnostic process and improving patient outcomes, these new tests will also help to reduce healthcare provision costs.

• Home healthcare solutions. We were introduced to the Philips Lifeline, a leader in personal emergency response services in the US. The aging population provides a strong underlying market growth for home healthcare solutions. Today, in the developed world, seniors represent around 15 percent of the population — and this is expected to double in size over the next 25 years. The good news is that these seniors are taking charge of their own health and wellness. The elderly (and their caregivers) are availing themselves of personal response services (like personal alarms and defibrillators).

“We’ve realized that the way to provide better, more cost-efficient healthcare is to focus on the patient — something that really sets us apart,” declares Steve Rusckowski, CEO, Philips Medical  Systems, at a press briefing at the Hyatt McCormick Place. “We view every single aspect of each patient’s treatment, from the initial diagnosis to testing, monitoring and aftercare, as part of one holistic process: the care cycle ...  This approach doesn’t just let us put the patient first, it also allows clinicians and care providers to spend more time doing what they do best — treating and managing their patients’ conditions. We want to help build high-quality, patient-centered healthcare systems. And to do this, we need to provide integrated, innovative solutions for every stage of the care cycle.”

Pointing at Philips’ brilliant new 256 CT scanner, Brilliance iCT, Rusckowski notes, “Our innovations are perfect demonstrations of our commitment to enable healthcare providers to devote attention toward their patients, not the technology. Our new 256 Brilliance iCT scannner announced today was specifically designed by Philips to make the job of the clinicians easier and improve the experience of the patient.”

FYI, the Brilliance iCT scanner is also designed to reduce patients’ exposure to x-rays — the scan is much quicker as the machine’s x-ray emitting gantry (the giant ring-shaped part that surrounds the patient) can rotate four times in a single second, 22 percent faster than current systems.

Philips, a name the world has trusted over the years, is a specialist in the fields of cardiology, oncology, critical care, and women’s health. “We focus on the fundamental health problems like congestive heart failure, lung and breast cancers, and coronary artery disease for which patients seek treatment,” adds Rusckowski.

And as the world’s population ages and people spend more time in hospitals and clinics (and probably require regular medical care and attention at home), according to Rusckowski, “the challenge is for Philips and the rest of the world to provide better quality care at lower cost — all as efficiently as possible.”

That is why Philips, always at the forefront of innovations, is dedicated to developing tools that deliver value throughout the care cycle: from disease prevention to screening and diagnosis to treatment, monitoring, and health management.  For instance, it has developed higher resolution Positron Emission Tomography (PET) to enable radiologists to see cancer nodules earlier than before. Philips has created TV-based interactive monitoring solutions to help monitor chronic heart failure patients in their own homes.

Wayne Spittle, vice president and GM, Philips Medical Systems: Multi Country Region - Asia Pacific, stresses, “We cannot achieve prosperity without quality healthcare ... Ultimately, it is about providing patients in both the developed and the developing world with access to affordable and available care of good quality.”

Spittle adds that emerging markets like India and the ASEAN region are the new growth markets of the future. “In emerging markets such as India, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines, increasing access to available healthcare systems and solutions is a serious challenge that needs urgent solutions.”

Spittle asserts, “Healthcare is about improving people’s lives at the most basic and important level. At the same time, healthcare promises to be a tremendous locomotive for economic growth. Based on our long presence and established market positions, we are well placed to help identify solutions to deliver high-quality, low-cost healthcare to those who are not addressed by the existing healthcare systems.”

He is quick to add, “Good healthcare solutions will improve patient care. At the same time, they will keep healthcare costs under control. I don’t believe there is a trade-off between quality and costs; good healthcare provides a society with tremendous human and financial benefits.”

In the Philippines, Philips is providing access to rural healthcare through a Dutch government foreign loan assistance program. Five hospitals in the most far-flung provinces of the Philippines can now access virtual consultations with heart specialists in urban centers such as Manila. Recently, Philips launched the Easy Web (E-Web) Healthcare System, an Internet-based system that allows online referral and diagnosis of patients from remote provinces by healthcare experts based at the Philippine Heart Center. This will enable thousands of townsfolk in the rural communities to have access to quality healthcare through health screening and facilities.

At the 93rd annual meeting of the RSNA in Chicago, Royal Philips Electronics unveiled its latest innovative healthcare products and technologies that seek to make a difference in how radiologists can prevent, diagnose, treat, and monitor disease, and allow them to focus more on their patients. The flagship product is the 256-slice Brilliance iCT scanner that allows radiologists to produce high-quality images with exceptional acquisition speed, including complete coverage of the heart and brain. It is so powerful that it can capture an image of the entire heart in just two beats while incorporating Philips technology that has reduced radiation doses by up to 80 percent.

Such heartwarming news on a chilly day in Chicago! Philips truly rocks — and so does our Hard Rock Hotel in Chicago, where memorabilia of rock stars are found on every floor. But the real stars, of course, are the hotel guests. On the day of our departure, we were ferried to the airport in a stretch limousine like hot celebrities. Having just experienced Philips’ hottest healthcare offerings, we daresay things couldn’t get hotter in the Windy City.