Strategic alliance to deliver cloud-based healthcare information technology

In a move to accelerate the transformation of the healthcare industry, Royal Philips and salesforce.com have announced a strategic alliance to deliver an open, cloud-based healthcare platform.

Patient relationship management will be at the centre of the envisioned platform, allowing caregivers to collaborate closely in support of their patients. The platform will enable medical device and data interoperability the collection of data and subsequent analysis to enhance clinical decision-making by professionals and enabling patients to take a more-active role in managing their personal health.

The collaboration has already resulted in two clinical applications to be launched on the new platform later this summer - Philips eCareCoordinator and Philips eCareCompanion.

These care collaboration applications will allow the care team to monitor patients with chronic conditions in their homes and will facilitate Philips’ Hospital to Home clinical programmes, such as Banner iCare, being piloted at Banner Health, a pioneer accountable care organisation in Arizona, USA.

Together we have a tremendous opportunity to reshape and optimise the way healthcare is delivered and provide better access to data across the continuum of care

Similar telehealth-based care delivery models for hospitals utilising the Philips eICU program were shown to reduce mortality by 26% and length of stay by 20% in a recent large, multi-centre study.

“With this strategic alliance, Philips is making great strides to deliver real-time, digital healthcare solutions,” said Frans van Houten, chief executive of Royal Philips.

“Healthcare data exists in many different forms and in many different systems today. Together with salesforce.com, we have a tremendous opportunity to reshape and optimise the way healthcare is delivered and provide better access to data across the continuum of care.”

"We have entered a new transformative era for healthcare and technology is enabling the industry to connect to, care for and engage with patients and each other in a profound new way,” added Marc Benioff, chairman and chief executive of salesforce.com.

“Together with Philips, we are creating an open health platform and ecosystem to benefit everyone that cares about one of the most-important issues of our time."

Philips and salesforce.com envision that apps will cover the continuum of care, from self ncare and prevention to diagnosis and treatment through to recovery and wellness. The envisioned platform, based on the Salesforce1 Platform, will enable collaboration and workflow, as well as integration of data from multiple sources worldwide including electronic medical records, diagnostic and treatment information obtained through Philips’ imaging equipment, monitoring equipment, personal devices and technologies like Apple’s HealthKit. Moreover, the cloud-based platform is designed to be highly scalable with built-in privacy and data security. By combining the data, the platform will allow for analysis that will enhance decision-making by professionals and engage patients.

Both Philips and Salesforce.com foresee that the platform will utilise Philips’ clinical data stores and medical device interoperability. It is intended to be open to developers and is expected to result in a vibrant ecosystem of partners creating applications. As a result, the envisioned platform has the potential to transform both professional healthcare delivery and continuous personal health management.