Philips partners to deliver integrated virtual healthcare solutions in ANZ

MedTech News: Royal Philips announced it has signed a new partnership with a global leader in whole-person virtual care. The partnership is the first of its kind in Australia and New Zealand, and will deliver comprehensive virtual healthcare solutions across healthcare facilities, enabling virtual care delivery across entire organisations.

Health networks across Australia and New Zealand are experiencing challenges with overburdened emergency departments, ICU capacity, and elective surgery backlogs, leading to long waiting times for people seeking access to healthcare services. Rising healthcare costs and increased demand for hospital services are accelerating adoption of virtual health programs that can make use of limited specialist resources while improving quality and access to care.

“Phillips and Teladoc Health will be a powerful combination for health systems in Australia and New Zealand. Together we will deliver what hospitals and health systems want: integrated, enterprise solutions that make the full breadth of virtual care available to their physicians and patients,” said Darren Reynolds, Managing Director of Teladoc Health for Australia and New Zealand. “Our collaboration will deliver a more seamless, unified experience for clinicians that makes healthcare better, leveraging leading data, analytics and expertise from both companies.”

The Philips-Teladoc Health partnership aims to improve patient access to healthcare services, create increased hospital capacity, improve clinician experience and improve patient health outcomes while reducing the overall cost of care. By combining their world leading virtual care capabilities, the two companies will work together to offer hospitals and health systems a scalable end-to-end virtual care journey, allowing organisations to leverage scarce clinical resources with remote patient monitoring across health facilities to support patients and clinicians. New patient insights derived from the virtual care models will ensure practitioners are able to deliver patients improved access to specialist care regardless of time or location.

Commenting on the partnership with Teladoc Health, Shehaan Fernando, Regional Director of Virtual Care at Philips, commented “The evolution of virtual care is unique to each health system. Since the onset of the pandemic, virtual care models have rapidly become a requirement, not an option. Experience shows us that an ecosystem of innovative partners is the best approach to meet organisations where they are in this journey. This partnership with Teladoc strengthens our existing capability through the delivery and performance of best practice programs found at some of the top academic medical institutions and government health systems in the world. We are confident this comprehensive offering will better serve our health systems in Australia and New Zealand.”

Recognised by Gartner’s 2020 Market Guide for Virtual Care Solutions, Philips Virtual Care Centres are a leading example of how virtual care programs can deliver measurable outcomes. In Virtual Care Centres across the world, Philips has leveraged its monitoring, machine learning and advanced analytics programming to turn disparate data into actionable insights that enable clinical decision and improve patient outcomes including:

• 26% reduction in patient mortality
• 30% reduction in length of stay
• 15% of patients be discharged home faster

From point-of-care devices to solutions that integrate with existing systems and workflows, Teladoc Health enables hospitals and health systems to extend their organization’s reach and impact across the entire care continuum. Teladoc Health’s virtual care platform and solutions extend the reach of clinicians to more care sites and enhance hospitals’ and health systems’ impact on health and satisfaction outcomes.

As of September 2021, the combined Philips and Teladoc Health solutions are being offered to public and private health networks across Australia and New Zealand.