Dubai: Purposeful partnerships among governments, healthcare providers and MedTech (medical technology) providers can help deliver improved patient outcomes, and better patient and staff experiences at lower cost, a senior executive of global health technology leader Philips said at Arab Health 2023 in Dubai.
Speaking to Gulf News, Edwin Paalvast, Chief of International Markets, Royal Philips, pointed out that effective use of innovative healthcare technology can also help to optimise healthcare systems struggling with human resource shortages.
“There is a significant shortage of healthcare workers, particularly post COVID-19. We were in a period when a lot of procedures that were postponed during the pandemic are now being addressed. So, there is a lot of demand on the healthcare system. We need to make use of innovative solutions for all that. Now more than ever, it is important to ease the burden on clinical teams and ensure that hospital resources are put to their most productive use,” he said.
According to him, Philips has been bringing out solutions that help healthcare organisations to optimise their services. Virtual care solutions enable healthcare providers to extend where, when, and how care is delivered.
Paalvast cited the example of the Philips eICU. It is a transformational critical care telehealth programme comprising one centralised, specialised critical care team, as a supplement to the bedside team, who can manage many ICU locations, in real time. This support to increasingly scarce clinical resources, has been shown to reduce mortality, lengths of stay and cost of care.
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Enhancing collaboration
Elaborating on the new innovations from Philips, Paalvast said that this year at Arab Health, Philips is launching its breakthrough innovation, the MR 7700 3T MRI imaging system. The company said MR 7700 reaches new levels of precision in both anatomical and functional imaging to support confident diagnosis for every patient. It is said to combine neuroscience capabilities, with a 35 per cent faster scan time (compared to Ingenia Elition X with Vega HP gradients) to deliver greater patient comfort.
Another technology spotlighted by Paalvast was the Philips digital pathology solution which speeds up collaboration between laboratories and contributes to earlier and more accurate detection and tissue assessment. “It can also save time for pathologists in administration tasks - freeing up capacity for a higher volume of patients to receive the access to care they need.”
He said the company was also amplifying the use of artificial intelligence to accelerate patient care significantly with various other digital solutions including its acute patient management solutions, virtual care solutions, and a full portfolio of integrated workflow solutions among others.
