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| Philips teamed up with Radboud University on its diabetes app with integrated online community--Courtesy of Philips |
Royal Philips ($PHG) is working to bridge the gap to integrate consumer health and third-party device data into its massive platform that collects, integrates and analyzes medical records, imaging and monitoring data, HealthSuite. To do so, it's working with digital health connectivity player Validic in a new partnership.
The pairing highlights Philips' ongoing strategic moves to transcend and unite its consumer and hospital-focused businesses. It is expected to bring consumer-generated data from fitness wearables, remote monitoring devices and health apps, as well as medical devices like blood pressure cuffs, health patches and glucose meters, regardless of vendor, into Philips HealthSuite to be integrated and analyzed in conjunction with a patient's electronic medical record and other clinical data sources.
"Being able to deliver the best care requires that healthcare providers have a comprehensive view of each patient's health condition," said Philips CEO of Connected Care and Health Informatics Jeroen Tas in a statement. "Increasingly, healthcare is moving beyond the walls of the hospital, enabled by connected devices to monitor both health and care."
He continued, "We can now take a next step by securely combining the data generated by someone's glucose meter and fitness tracker with their clinical data, so that caregivers can discover relevant and actionable insights for new models of personalized health management of their patients. Our collaboration with Validic helps to accelerate this step."
The company expects that it will be able to integrate third party device data into existing applications such as its Personal Health Programs and Lifelife medical alert service as well as its eCareCoordinator and eCompanion applications
The news comes in advance of a series of announcements that Philips has already said it will make at the healthcare informatics conference HIMSS, which runs in Las Vegas from Feb. 29 through March 4. "We plan to announce a slate of health informatics applications based on HealthSuite at the coming HIMSS Conference," Philips CEO Frans von Houten said on the company's Jan. 26 earnings call.
Last month, Philips showed off HealthSuite at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, where van Houten said it received an "excellent response."
"This platform can, among other things, connect consumers to medical devices that monitor and coach personal health and wellness and can also connect patients to systems that allow them to recover from procedures in the comfort of their homes," he summed up during the earnings call. "HealthSuite will also support professional healthcare solutions from both Philips and third parties, driving better outcomes, higher productivity and enabling patient-centric population health management through the cloud."
- here is the announcement