Philips accelerates its moves to champion Healthy China strategy

Andy Ho, CEO of Philips Greater China, shares his thoughts on how the company can support China's national health strategy.

The Healthy China 2030 national strategy - the action program announced in Beijing in 2016, will promote the health of China's 1.3 billion people - as a result, major changes are taking place, according to Andy Ho, CEO of Philips Greater China.

The Amsterdam-based Dutch electronics giant, one of whose three main divisions is Philips Healthcare, said China is shifting from disease-centered care to "big health".

To echo this trend, Philips accelerated its transformation toward health technology last year, according to Ho. It implemented its strategy by following the China model, to speed up locally relevant innovation as part of its effort to support Healthy China 2030.

Philips is leveraging its rich clinical expertise, deep consumer insights, advanced digital and Artificial Intelligence technologies, and capitalizing on the convergence of professional healthcare and consumer end-markets.

By doing so, Philips strives to offer integrated, digital and innovative solutions across the health continuum. These range from healthy living and prevention to diagnosis, treatment and home care, to help consumers enjoy healthy lifestyles and empower them to better manage their health.

Elsewhere, its services support healthcare professionals on precise diagnosis and personalized treatment and enable them to manage more patients through smart remote tools; to help healthcare institutions to streamline workflows, enhance doctor and patient experience, and deliver healthcare in a more accessible, affordable and efficient manner.

Philips says digital innovation plays a crucial role in the company's transition toward integrated solutions, and in the future, most of its products will be based on digital and AI technologies.

Core capabilities possessed by Philips in AI include data science platforms, clinical applications, workflow and efficiency improvement.

Major AI projects being executed by Philips Research China include natural language processing, data mining and analytics to support the generation of structured data in the health sector.

In the consumer sector, Philips has been constantly introducing breakthrough products in oral care, air and water purification, healthy cooking, personal care and other fields of widespread concern while consumers are trading up.

Philips is also gradually transforming its simple "product sales" model in the hope of forming long-term relationships with consumers.

By providing ongoing services and health management knowledge, Philips aims to shape itself as a health expert across the health continuum in the eyes of consumers.

As a response to the "new retail" driven by new technologies and business models, Philips is also accelerating its consumer-focused transformation across channels by establishing an IT-based ecosystem and leveraging experiential marketing in order to strengthen consumer obsession and seize new opportunities from omni-channel convergence.

In the professional market, Philips focuses on chronic diseases of cardiology, stroke, oncology and respiratory, that are most prevalent and health-resource consuming.

While leveraging its clinical expertise and advanced technologies to develop disease-based solutions, the company is also dedicated to building an open ecosystem - where partners co-create solutions and speed up the launch of solutions through innovative business models.

For example, Philips co-created an integrated stroke solution in partnership with Changhai Hospital in Shanghai, and a post-acute management solution for cardiovascular patients with Peking University First Hospital.

At the end of 2017, Philips entered into a strategic partnership with innovative companies such as Qingdao Baheal and Tianjin Oranger, to co-create one-stop solutions in early lung cancer screening and chronic respiratory disease management.

The group will also push to accelerate the commercialization of such AI-based solutions, which can support the decision-making of doctors and empower patients to manage their health easily and transparently.

(China Daily 02/08/2018 page7)