NAIROBI, Kenya, August 22, 2016/APO/ --

• Roelof Assies, CEO, Philips East Africa ​(www.Philips.com), inaugurates the Philips Live! Innovation Experience in Nairobi, providing a glimpse into the future of healthcare

• Philips presents an experiential showcase that highlights solutions that enable people to live a healthier life, innovations that make care highly personalised and more widely available to those who need it, and ways in which connected care empowers healthcare practitioners and patients

Around the globe, disruption, innovation, and the rapid pace of technological development is reshaping consumer experience, as well as the operating environment for organisations of all sizes and within every industry. The healthcare industry is no exception.  Today, technological and business innovation is empowering companies and healthcare professionals to deliver medication, treatment, as well as more effective care to patients quicker and more efficiently resulting in better care that is accessible to many more people than ever before. The latter is vitally important at Philips, which strives to deliver personal, meaningful innovation that has a positive impact on people’s lives.

“Our mission is to improve the lives of 3 billion people by 2025. This is a bold and daring vision. But looking at the state of the world, it is a path worth taking,” Roelof Assies, CEO of Philips East Africa, stated today at the opening of the Philips Live! Innovation Experience in Nairobi. 

The Philips Live! Innovation Experience 2016 provided a glimpse into the future of healthcare; attendees were taken on an experiential tour through an immersive setting, highlighting solutions that enable people to live a healthier life, innovations that make care highly personalised and more widely available to those who need it, and ways in which connected care empowers healthcare practitioners and patients – especially in cardiology care.

"Innovation has been and will always be at the heart of Philips and the Philips Live! Innovation Experience underlines how we are pushing the boundaries to improve people's lives with a host of localised solutions and services. With a presence in Africa for over 100 years Philips is committed to providing effective, sustainable and value based solutions to the continent. We hope to inspire our customers and partners and demonstrate the steps we can take together to improve people’s lives across the continent,” added Roelof Assies.

Cardiology care was a key theme at the event; cardiovascular disease is the number one cause of death globally, accounting for 17.3 million deaths per year, and is expected to grow to more than 23.6 million by 2030¹. Yet, most cardiovascular diseases can be prevented by changing behaviours and eliminating risk factors. The event showcased, innovations that can help clinicians treat cardiovascular disease by speeding detection, diagnosis and treatment, driving more effective recovery and home care, and encouraging prevention and healthy living.

Digital technologies are empowering people to take more control of their health and lead healthier lives. Data and connected solutions help deliver the relevant information at the right time – enabling healthcare professionals to make first-time right decisions, achieve better outcomes at lower costs, and facilitate care models that put patients at the centre of care.

Thanks to advances in imaging and monitoring technologies, combined with rapid development in digital health data and cloud computing, Philips is leading the transformation of the healthcare industry and creating highly integrated, personalised care with better outcomes at lower costs.

As part of the experiential setting at the event attendees were able to see several solutions centred on improving healthcare delivery under three themes :

Reinventing Cardiology | Access to Care | Personalisation of health.

REINVENTING CARDIOLOGY

Allura Xper Biplane System

The Allura Xper FD20 is optimised to support quicker decisions with optimal risk management in Cardiac and Vascular procedures.

The leading edge Allura Xper family, combines superb flat detector image quality with advanced interventional tools. With Philips’ 2k imaging and 16 bit detector cardiologists can evaluate small vessels and move through procedures with confidence, while StentBoost Subtract enables cardiologists to check placed stents clearly, thus, helping to improve treatment and providing valuable information where and when it’s needed.

Intellispace Portal

The Philips IntelliSpace Portal is a web-enabled image and information management system with a single integrated workspace that produces a holistic view of the patient’s care continuum.

The connected solution features Advanced Analytics and Diagnostic Guidance that provides physicians with sophisticated tools to access, analyse and share images and information anytime, from virtually anywhere.

IntelliSpace Cardiovascular provides an overview of all cardiology information wherever and whenever it is needed. Having an overview of the entire cardiac history combining relevant information such as ECG, Echo, CT, MR and Angio with laboratory test, supports informed decision making.

Philips Volcano

Philips Volcano, is a global leader in physiology and intravascular imaging for coronary and peripheral applications. The business also offers a suite of peripheral therapeutic devices. This is part of Philips’ industry leading solutions to decide, guide and confirm the right therapy for each patient in real-time during image-guided therapies (IGT).

Philips’ IGT business group is founded in cardiovascular care and is expanding into other specialties. To improve patient and economic outcomes, it officially acquired Volcano as part of its IGT business group as of 17 February 2015.

With the acquisition of Volcano, Philips is marrying a leader in the systems area with one in the device space. This distinctive move enables it to provide a personalised approach and complements Philips’ existing portfolio of interventional X-ray and ultrasound imaging equipment, navigation systems, software and services, and creates new sources of recurring revenue streams.

The Philips Volcano image-guided interventional therapy portfolio helps clinicians decide, guide and confirm the right therapy for the right patient at the point of care.

EPIQ Ultrasound

EPIQ 7 is Philips’ most intelligent premium ultrasound system, offering a complete set of easy-to-use quantitative tools to turn reproducible data into clinical information to guide treatment.

At the heart of the powerful EPIQ 7 architecture is the Philips exclusive Anatomical Intelligence Ultrasound (AIUS), designed to elevate the ultrasound system from a passive to an actively adaptive device. With automatic anatomy recognition, protocols for automatic functionality, and proven quantification, exams are easier to perform, more reproducible, and deliver new levels of clinical information.

Intellivue MX800 Monitor

The IntelliVue MX800 is a patient monitor and information system in one; designed to simplify access to patient information that is needed to enhance diagnostic confidence throughout the hospital.

The IntelliVue MX800 patient monitor offers better-integrated access to relevant patient information at the bedside, and also offers a broader range of embedded Clinical Decision Support tools for a medical team. The MX800 easily integrates into a hospital’s existing IT infrastructure.

IMPROVING ACCESS TO CARE

Community Life Centre (CLC)

Collaborating with local governments, Philips is developing Community Life Centres (CLC) to provide a total solution for primary healthcare facilities with the aim of not only improving healthcare but also enabling community development. In Kiambu, Kenya, the installation of a CLC saw the number of patients visiting increase to 4,000 patients per month, from 1,000 patients previously.

CLC Outreach Kit

The CLC Outreach Kit provides a number of tools carried in a backpack, which supports community health workers and midwives in their efforts to diagnose and refer people in need of further treatment or transportation. It is also intended to support their educational activities within communities.

The kit comes in a range of four options and is part of a package solution complete with services and training.

The CLC Outreach Kit is connected to and is an integral part of the Philips CLC approach aimed at strengthening primary and community health.

Lumify

Lumify is Philips’ smart device solution, which is set to make ultrasound technology more accessible to licensed healthcare providers or organisations. It comprises two advanced ultrasound transducers, an app-based online portal and a subscription platform as part of a comprehensive portable, connected digital solution.

Lumify leverages advanced digital health technology to provide critical information to the right people at the right time, transforming care delivery and connecting the various touch points along the health continuum.

Children’s Automated Respiration Monitor (ChARM)

The Philips Children’s Automated Respiration Monitor (ChARM) converts chest movements detected by accelerometers into an accurate breathing count, using specially developed algorithms. The device not only provides quantitative feedback, but also qualitative feedback to the healthcare provider based on the World Health Organization’s Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI)² guidelines to diagnose fast breathing rates, which is one of the key vital signs to diagnosing pneumonia.

Minicare Acute

The Philips Minicare Acute, is a fully-automated handheld rapid diagnostic testing solution that can measure target molecules in very low concentrations (picomolar) in blood in a matter of minutes. The system offers multiplexing capabilities, making it possible to improve diagnostic and provide multiple marker results, simultaneously, from the same droplet of blood at the same time.

The results it presents are not only immediate, but it also enables doctors to identify high risk patients earlier to reduce the time from diagnosis to treatment or quickly discharge patients not in need of emergency care.

PERSONALIZATION OF HEALTH

Personal health programmes

Philips Personal Health Programs empower people to take greater control of their health. These app-based solutions help people establish and maintain healthier habits. They are designed with a unique combination of professional healthcare and consumer insights. The products, sold separately, are made-up of the health watch, which continuously and automatically measures a wide range of health biometrics (including heart rate, activity, and sleep patterns).  The Philips upper arm & wrist blood pressure monitors - allowing measurement of systolic and diastolic blood pressure as well as the heart rate; a Body Analysis Scale to measure weight, estimate body fat percentage and BMI calculation; and an ear thermometer for taking temperature.

These devices are enabled by the Philips HealthSuite Digital Platform, an open, secure, cloud-based platform that that collects and analyses health and other data from multiple devices and sources.

The health measurement devices that gather information for the Philips personal health programs are all Bluetooth enabled, connecting wirelessly to the Philips HealthSuite Health app so users can conveniently track their measurements over time.

BlueTouch & PulseRelief

Philips’ PulseRelief and BlueTouch devices offer a drug-free solution to help chronic pain sufferers manage their pain discreetly and flexibly. These devices are wireless and easy to use, and their treatment app helps users to get the most out of them.

BlueTouch and PulseRelief with the treatment app allow users to track pain before and after treatment, and over time. The devices can be operated by a mobile device and are thus designed to help support a more active lifestyle.

BlueTouch uses blue light therapy to help relieve muscular back pain with a dual effect: delivering soothing warmth and stimulating the release of the body’s own nitric oxide. The result is locally increased blood flow that supports the body’s natural recovery processes.

PulseRelief uses TENS (Transcutaneous Electronic Nerve Stimulation) therapy to help relieve mild to moderate chronic musculoskeletal pain. During TENS treatment, electrodes stimulate the sensory nerves in the skin.

Philips Airfryer

The Philips Airfryer is a revolution in home cooking that uses little or no oil as it fries. Conventional deep fat fryers use large amounts of oil to cook food; however the Philips Airfryer uses patented Rapid Air technology to circulate hot air around a grill component, creating delicious meals with up to 80% less fat. Whether it’s perfect French fries, samosas, chicken, fried desserts and deep-fried meats, food is cooked and crisped to perfection, at very high speed.

The Airfryer fries, bakes, roasts and grills with a tablespoon or less of oil, making it the perfect solution for fast, easy and healthier meals and snacks.