By Kathy Dion, Managing Editor
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands – Royal Philips has launched a line of connected health devices that integrate with its HealthSuite ecosystem to provide personalized, continuous care in various environments, including the home.
With the devices, which include a health watch, weight scale, ear thermometer and blood pressure monitor, Philips is enabling a “new era” of connected health where consumers can collect their own health data, have access to their clinical records, and collaborate with health and wellness providers to enhance their health.
“Through analytics and algorithms, this health data can deliver predictive, personalized insights to support healthcare professionals in making clinical decisions or alert medical teams to potential problems,” said Carla Krystin “ck” Andrade PhD, director of product management for Philips HealthSuite. “At a population level, anonymized data analysis could help healthcare institutions manage large groups of patients with similar needs, make more informed investment decisions, detect societal health trends sooner and accelerate medical research.”
HealthSuite is an open and secure, cloud-based platform that collects and analyzes data from multiple devices and sources. It has a health-optimized infrastructure with open APIs that gives developers the tools and services necessary to create future health apps that can deliver more personalized services and solutions.
Philips maintains that the devices—the health watch, in particular—are more than fitness trackers. The watch tracks a wide range of heart rate biometrics for up to four days on a charge; it tracks and automatically recognizes activity, sleep and sedentary behavior; and it estimates calories burned throughout the day.
“(The devices have been) developed with leading doctors, psychologists and other experts, leveraging the deep clinical knowledge and professional healthcare expertise of Philips,” said Eline de Graaf, the company’s marketing director.
The new devices signal a focus by Philips on improving the efficiency of healthcare and moving toward more preventative models of care to optimize health and reduce costs.
“The HealthSuite connected ecosystem helps to streamline multidisciplinary collaboration around the patient and helps to personalize care to each individual’s needs,” Andrade said. “It also harnesses the value of the increasing amounts of health data to give health professionals useful tools, feedback and insights to help improve care.”
The new products are aimed at people age 50 and older who have at least one chronic disease, and those with a high risk of developing a chronic disease.
