Interview with Frans Van Houten,global CEO,royal philips

Ceorans Van Houten [PHOTO:PETER MUIRURI/STANDARD]

Nairobi; Kenya: Last week, Philips announced it was splitting into two companies – one focused on health tech opportunities and the other on lighting solutions. Royal Philips Global’s Frans Van Houten talks to Business Beat’s Peter Muiruri about the emerging issues and innovations in health care.

 

Why the shift in business strategy?
The move is set to position both companies for long-term market leadership. The envisaged health innovations will allow consumers to monitor and manage their health while allowing healthcare professionals deliver more accurate diagnosis and treatment. Globally, governments are looking for ways to deliver better and more affordable healthcare beyond hospital walls.

They also want to empower healthcare professionals to co-operate more effectively and deliver better diagnoses and treatments. To enable this revolution, healthcare has to be delivered as an integrated service. By merging the two and working from a unified vision and strategy in a single company, we create a stronger foundation for future growth and innovation.

Take us through some of your new innovations in the health sector
Among the new innovations is a smart air purifier that provides real-time data on air quality inside of a house via an app. It enables a person to control the purifier using their mobile phone. It constantly measures the air quality and alerts you when the air reaches unsafe levels.

It is expected to help people suffering from allergies and respiratory problems as well as families living in some of the world’s most polluted cities. The company has also engineered a drug free app that will help patients understand and effectively manage their pain without the need for hospital visits. In addition, BlueControl will assist in the management of psoriasis using blue LED lighting.

How are you applying information technology?
We are taking advantage of advances in big data, cloud computing and other technologies. Globally, we are working with healthcare professionals to create a more integrated approach to healthcare in the form of prevention and early identification, through to treatment, and self-management of chronic illness.

We recently announced a collaboration with Salesforce.com to help us build our cloud-based healthcare platform that will integrate diagnostic data from multiple sources and devices with longitudinal medical records, which will enable us to create highly efficient, workflows so healthcare professionals can work across silos.

How will patients benefit from this?
Physicians can be more accurate and definitive in their diagnoses as well as make better treatment plans and collaborate more effectively. Patients can take a more active role in their healing process - whether in the hospital or at home. We are about to launch the first two applications for the US market, but we’re opening the platform to external developers so an ecosystem of applications can emerge.

We are also developing a technology that enables physicians to digitally scan a biopsy and share data with colleagues around the world. Consider the treatment of prostate cancer which affects one in six men. Currently, biopsies are physically shared on glass slides, which means diagnosis can only happen inside the hospital with a microscope. But an accurate diagnosis is hard, so patients tend to be over treated.

Surgeons, for example, may opt for invasive surgery just to be on the safe side. This means physicians in Tokyo, San Francisco and Berlin can diagnose a patient in Sydney. Based on this, patients can get the treatment plan that is most effective for them, for example actively monitoring the tumour and taking action only when necessary.

Why is the company turning its lighting solutions segment into a separate business entity?
The lighting industry is experiencing the largest transformation since the invention of the light bulb. LEDs and connected lighting technologies are catalysing the shift from lighting products to lighting solutions and systems.

While still valuable for the illumination it provides, light will increasingly create social and economic value by making buildings and cities safer, more beautiful and energy efficient. By turning lighting solutions into a separate entity with direct access to financial markets, we will accelerate this even further.

How will a safer, more comfortable, and sustainable environment through lighting be accomplished?
We need to change how we build and run our cities. One key opportunity is to create a safer and healthier environment through energy efficient lighting and replace the habits of the linear economy with principles of the circular economy.

This means designing and making products for multiple re-use, such as selling light as a service rather than a product. This radically different approach would make cities more sustainable, save costs and generate new opportunities for growth.

How are developing countries benefiting from these innovations?
In Africa, for example where 600 million people are off the power grid, we are already installing some of our energy saving lighting solutions. There is a playground in Mathare, Nairobi, where children can now play in the evening.

Crime rates have also gone down in the area where muggings were the order of the day. Philips has also inaugurated the First Community Life Centre in Githurai, Kiambu County complete with a maternity wing with modern equipment.