Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA), a global leader in health technology, today announced it has once again joined forces with the American Telemedicine Association (ATA) to help further the adoption of telehealth across the industry, demonstrating its commitment to connecting care across acute, post-acute and home care settings. The continued collaboration spotlights the growing adoption and momentum in telehealth amidst COVID-19, and the need to convey the exponential shift to telehealth capabilities.
The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the share of Americans participating in telehealth from 11% in 2019 to 46% today, with healthcare systems reporting a 50 to 175-fold increase in telehealth volume compared to pre-pandemic levels [1]. As the world begins to move from the first wave of reactive care, into a more proactive phase and beyond, virtual care solutions are supporting the recovery of COVID patients as they transition through their care journey, and non-COVID patients as they return to elective surgeries, diagnoses, prevention and treatments that have been put on hold since the onset of the pandemic.
"There is no better time for Philips to team with the ATA. Philips is creating proactive, AI-powered solutions to improve patient monitoring, precision diagnosis and clinical workflows at every point along the continuum. This directly aligns with our vision for telehealth - to drive the transformation of health by integrating virtual care from the hospital to physician offices and the home," said Ann Mond Johnson, CEO, the ATA. "Major industry players like Philips joining the ATA reconfirms the importance of telehealth and creates important new opportunities to deliver quality care whenever and wherever it’s needed."
"Philips has been a leader in telehealth across acute care and post-acute care settings in the hospital and in the home for over three decades, helping health systems deploy and scale telehealth solutions to help improve patient outcomes, enhance patient and staff experience and lower care costs," said Roy Jakobs, Chief Business Leader Connected Care, member of the Executive Committee at Royal Philips. "Our alignment with ATA will help promote strong growth and faster adoption of telehealth and policy changes escalated during the COVID crisis as we pivot to innovate ‘virtual first’ strategies to support hospitals, payers, and patients across care settings, including digital health technologies to support healthy living in the home."
Expanding virtual connected care through partnership and innovation
COVID-19 has propelled digital technology to the forefront as healthcare systems rapidly expand telehealth, including virtual care, remote patient monitoring, data analytics and medical record-sharing capabilities to care for patients with COVID-19. In response to the pandemic, Philips has been working with customers around the world to rapidly develop and deploy scalable telehealth solutions to support frontline care professionals and their patients. Philips recently received 510(k) clearance from the Food and Drug Administration for its wireless wearable biosensor (Philips Biosensor BX100) to help manage confirmed and suspected COVID-19 patients in the hospital. The wearable biosensor enhances clinical surveillance as part of the Philips patient deterioration detection solution to help clinicians detect risk so they can intervene earlier and help improve care for patients in lower acuity care areas.The Philips Virtual Connected Care Ecosystem comprises people, processes, and technology. At the core of the platform are three Philips FDA-cleared, vendor agnostic solutions currently utilized to provide remote critical care to patients in the hospital and at home including:
- FDA-cleared Tele-ICU software (eCare Manager) with AI-enabled decision support algorithms to enable critical care clinicians to work virtually coordinating with on-site clinical staff to provide care to COVID-19 patients from the hospital into the home;
- Cloud-based software platform (IntelliSpace Corsium) provides real-time patient monitoring tracking during patient transport;
- Patient centered apps (eCare Coordinator for providers/eCare Companion for patients) deployed in a home environment using mobile IOT (Internet of Things) monitoring devices to allow healthcare providers to monitor physiologic survey data and communicate directly with the patients they are providing care to as needed.
Telehealth expanding access to care for millions of U.S. veterans
Philips has partnered with The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), The American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) on Advancing Telehealth through Local Access Stations known as the ATLAS Program, bringing care to Veterans where and when they need it most. Launching in Eureka, Montana, followed by Springfield, Virginia, Atlas kicked off in 2019 with 10 pilot sites to be installed before the end of 2020. Philips has also taken the current configuration being used for the ATLAS Program to now create the commercial Philips Virtual Care Station that will further expand access to care through non-traditional locations such as retail health, community and university environments.
ATA 2020 Annual Virtual Conference and Expo
The 2020 ATA Annual conference will take place virtually, beginning June 22 - 26, 2020. Participants will have access to keynote discussions and panel sessions ranging in topics from interoperability and cybersecurity, to remote patient monitoring and disparity within telehealth offerings. On June 24, at 11:00AM - 11:20AM ET, Jeroen Tas, Chief Innovation & Strategy Officer at Royal Philips will discuss how Philips responded to the COVID-19 pandemic and worked with customers around the world in developing telehealth solutions to support front-line care professionals. He will also share his vision on how healthcare leaders should embrace new ways of thinking to make possible digital, more modular and scalable, telehealth solutions.
About Royal Philips
Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA) is a leading health technology company focused on improving people's health and enabling better outcomes across the health continuum from healthy living and prevention, to diagnosis, treatment and home care. Philips leverages advanced technology and deep clinical and consumer insights to deliver integrated solutions. Headquartered in the Netherlands, the company is a leader in diagnostic imaging, image-guided therapy, patient monitoring and health informatics, as well as in consumer health and home care. Philips generated 2019 sales of EUR 19.5 billion and employs approximately 81,000 employees with sales and services in more than 100 countries.
About the ATA
As the only organization completely focused on advancing telehealth, the ATA is committed to ensuring that everyone has access to safe, affordable, and appropriate care when and where they need it, enabling the system to do more good for more people. ATA represents a broad and inclusive member network of technology solution providers and payers, as well as partner organizations and alliances, working to advance industry adoption of telehealth, promote responsible policy, advocate for government and market normalization, and provide education and resources to help integrate virtual care into emerging value-based delivery models.1. McKinsey https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/healthcare-systems-and-services/our-insights/telehealth-a-quarter-trillion-dollar-post-covid-19-reality