Posted on Thursday, March 31, 2022 at 4:16 p.m.
By Guillaume Pavoncelli
An electronics giant, Philips is now very active in the medical field. Because yes, technology is coming into our hospitals and can help doctors and patients alike.
This Friday, March 25, 2022, during a visit organized for a few journalists, Philips opened the doors of its facilities to us in the suburbs of Eindhoven, in the Netherlands. A campus – located on two sites separated by a few kilometers – entirely dedicated to innovations and technologies concerning health. This is not necessarily known to the general public but, for several years, the Dutch giant has made this area its main strategic direction. With the ambition to improve diagnostics, patient treatment and pressure on hospitals (and at the same time become an essential leader in the sector since, it should not be forgotten, Philips remains a company).
Innovate to improve
It is all the same interesting to see the turn taken by a brand which was mainly known for its televisions or other household appliances and which, today, puts its experience at the service of health and what this can bring to it. Shortly after the border, Philips therefore has its quarters solely focused on the medical sector: innovation center, research laboratory, assembly line for magnetic resonance devices… Nearly 3,000 people work there on future devices that will must improve our health care system, or at least reduce its costs.
Combine techniques
The Dutch company also tends to want to improve screening techniques, by combining some existing ones. Latest example: the Philips Lung Suite. A new solution to improve the detection of lung cancer, the leading cause of cancer death worldwide, according to WHO figures. Concretely, this new machine makes it possible to detect a cancerous cell more quickly (and more precisely) thanks to a 3D imaging platform. With a view to combining techniques, the tool also makes it possible to treat in a less invasive way. In Belgium, this new technology is already used at the Erasmus Hospital in Brussels and at the Genk Medical Center.
Phillips
Phillips
Proof that even in health, technological development remains important to offer useful advances, both to patients and to doctors. Because with ever more advanced tools, certain diseases can be detected more quickly or better (no need for excessive treatment for a benign tumor or the reverse). It now remains to put this same energy into the treatment of rare diseases for which treatments are almost non-existent.
