March 25, 2019
Amsterdam, the Netherlands - Royal Philips(NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA), a global leader in health technology, today announced that it is expanding its radiology solutions portfolio with innovative teleradiology services, aimed at addressing the increasing shortage of radiologists, as well as the pressing need to improve access to precision diagnoses. Philips' new telehealth services will build on its cloud-based radiology informatics portfolio of Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS) and Vendor Neutral Archive (VNA) solutions, combined with advanced analytics, visualization and workflow applications, to now also include advanced teleradiology viewing and reporting capabilities, on-call radiologist services, and related exam workflow enhancement applications.
Teleradiology involves the remote interpretation of patient images from medical imaging exams, such as CT, MR, and X-ray exams, by radiologists without needing them to be in the same location as the patient. It includes remotely storing, retrieving, viewing and analyzing medical images by clinical experts anywhere, so that patients can receive optimal treatment via their local caregivers, wherever they are. The global teleradiology market is among the fastest growing segments in the radiology and the clinical services outsourcing market, and is expected to be a sizable part of the imaging interpretation market within the next few years.
"As health systems worldwide struggle with the ever increasing costs and shortage of care providers, teleradiology will be a key enabler to optimally use the available resources, and support radiology departments to improve the speed and accuracy of image interpretation," said Sham Sokka, business leader of Radiology Solutions at Philips. "We see imaging as a system and deliver innovation to support the needs of all the people behind the images by seamlessly integrating technology and data. Our new teleradiology services address a pressing need, while providing a strong platform for Philips' future growth in the telehealth market."
Philips already provides the IT infrastructure for advanced telehealth solutions to improve collaboration among clinical care teams, and HealthSuite Digital Platform, a digital framework that connects consumers, patients and healthcare providers in a cloud-based ecosystem of devices, apps and tools.
Philips' new teleradiology services build on the recent acquisition of the teleradiology platform of US-based Direct Radiology [1], that Philips plans to scale to support radiologists globally. This complements Philips' organic innovation initiatives to expand its Radiology Solutionsportfolio. The Direct Radiology business currently provides services for more than 300 hospitals, imaging centers, mobile imaging services, and doctors' offices across the US.
[1]Philips has acquired Direct Radiology's teleradiology platform and business operations, including its employees. The medical practice part of Direct Radiology (the independent contractors physician group) will continue to operate independently through managed service agreements.
For further information, please contact:
Steve Klink
Philips Group Press Office
Tel.: +31 6 1088 8824
E-mail: steve.klink@philips.com
Ksenija Gonciarenko
Philips Investor Relations
Tel.: +31 20 5977055
E-mail: ksenija.gonciarenko@philips.com
About Royal Philips
Royal Philips.
Forward-looking statements
This release contains certain forward-looking statements with respect to the financial condition, results of operations and business of Philips and certain of the plans and objectives of Philips with respect to these items. Examples of forward-looking statements include statements made about the strategy, estimates of sales growth, future EBITA, future developments in Philips' organic business and the completion of acquisitions and divestments. By their nature, these statements involve risk and uncertainty because they relate to future events and circumstances and there are many factors that could cause actual results and developments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these statements.
