Royal Philips works towards healthcare digitization

Kevin Kim, head of health systems solutions at Philips APAC, demonstrates Royal Philips’ digital healthcare technology at the company’s Singapore office on Wednesday. [ROYAL PHILIPS]

SINGAPORE - Digitization is impacting almost every industry in the digital era, and healthcare is no exception.

Healthcare digitization includes the usage of digital twins, artificial intelligence and cloud-based technologies to reduce work inefficiencies, address healthcare shortages and provide more personalized care for patients.

Health technology company Royal Philips is among those pushing for the industry's digitization, with its healthcare equipment including sleep apnea devices and portable mesh nebulizers.

The goal of the company, headquartered in Amsterdam, is to build a “smart, sustainable healthcare ecosystem with digital solutions redefining a human-centric care experience,” Caroline Clarke, Philips APAC CEO and Executive Vice President, said in a presentation for Philips Future Health Index 2023 Report in Singapore Wednesday.

Digital pathology and an automated acuity score to help healthcare professionals distinguish the severity of different patient statuses on a single screen are some of the technologies Philips has developed to demonstrate a so-called smart hospital.

Digital twins, or virtual representations of a physical product or object spanning its lifecycle, were also highlighted as a key technology for healthcare professionals to generate predictions on how patients would respond to medical procedures or medicine. Philips has been investing in the technology since 2020.

The four key factors making up a smart hospital are clinical excellence, operational efficiency, experiential excellence and sustainability, according to Philips.

But before a hospital can be defined as “smart,” it first needs to be digital, a fine boundary that is still difficult to clarify.

“Perspectives on whether a hospital can be defined as smart or digital vary” by countries and by hospitals, Kevin Kim, head of health systems solutions at Philips APAC, said at the company’s Singapore office on Wednesday. Defining the level of technologies a hospital needs to have to be classified as digital or smart is “challenging.”

To be a smart hospital, healthcare professionals need to be able to gain insightful information based on the digitized data, Kim added. “Being a digital hospital sets a good foundation to becoming a smart hospital.”

Telehealth, accelerated by Covid-19, is another form of healthcare digitization.

“Covid-19 basically was a wake-up call,” Benedict Tan, group chief digital strategy officer and chief data officer at Singapore Health Services, Singapore’s largest healthcare group, told reporters at Singapore General Hospital. “When Covid-19 struck, we did not even know whether patients would come to the hospitals, so we had to push up telehealth's video consultation very, very fast and the uptake was great.”

BY JIN MIN-JI [jin.minji@joongang.co.kr]