Philips is a leading player in the healthcare sector, tell us about the global trends in healthcare?
Director – PCCI & Ultrasound Business, Philips Healthcare |
Philips is a dominating player in healthcare industry. Over 40 per cent of Philips’ revenue comes through healthcare, this emphasises the focus we have put on serving the industry and the same also gets reflected in our mission statement—“health and well being”. Globally, the demographic trend suggests that there is more aging population and it would require more efficient and more accessible healthcare infrastructure. Philips is tapping this opportunity by strengthening its home healthcare product line. The other trend is the move towards preventive healthcare. Worldwide, government and healthcare organisations are engaging in population screening programmes. Philips, with its wide imaging portfolio, is actively providing technology solutions to screen diseases like breast cancer, cervical cancer at a very early stage so that lot of social cost associated with disease treatment could be avoided.
How has Indian healthcare evolved vis-a-vis the global market, especially in the medical equipment segment?
Indian healthcare market in medical equipment segment is very challenging. It constantly demands high performance at affordable prices. The challenge is to understand the unique needs of customers and offer them solutions that address these needs. Hence, for example, we have a formidable patient monitoring portfolio. We can offer state-of-the-art performance through our IntelliVue series and at the same time offer affordable solutions through our Suresigns and Goldway series. We understand this uniqueness about Indian market vis-a-vis other markets (Europe, US) and hence, emphasis is laid on bringing in right products at right prices for our customers.
If I talk about the market opportunity, the matured markets of Europe and US are experiencing a slowdown. This has shifted the focus to emerging markets like China, India and Brazil. The Indian medical devices market is growing at a rate of above 12 per cent and this offers a huge opportunity for us.
What are the unique advantages and challenges in the Indian healthcare market for a company like Philips Healthcare?
Indian market is dynamic and hungry for innovation. It is a market that keeps a company like Philips on its feet. With a research centre in Bangalore, housing a research and development staff of over 1000 and with a strong manufacturing presence in India we are comfortably positioned to serve and strengthen our position in Indian market. The advantage of Indian market is the size of opportunity. According to our internal estimates, the Indian healthcare delivery market has significant headroom for growth with the country lagging on all key healthcare delivery metrics (hospital beds, physicians per 100,000 population, percent of Indians insured) when compared to countries like US and China. We, as Philips, recognise it as a big opportunity to bring in new products and solutions, work with various stakeholders (government, for profit, non-profit) and contribute in bringing quality healthcare to more people.
Philips is the official sponsor for Medicall 2012, tell us about its USP? What makes it different from its counterparts?
I think the USP of Medicall is its ability to attract, primarily, the owners of small private hospitals and nursing homes. We participated last year as an exhibitor and received a positive experience. So, we decided to be the official sponsor this time to reaffirm our commitment to serve the needs of small private hospitals and nursing homes. Medicall is different from its counterparts because of several reasons. First, it is organised in a very professional manner. Second, it is much more than a trade show. It provides a platform to enable holistic communication between doctors, entrepreneurs, medical device manufacturers, policy makers, thinkers and innovators. I hope that it will not lose its focus in future and will only build upon its merits.
What are Philip’s India-specific plans in the healthcare segment?
We are a leading player in the Indian healthcare sector. We are the No 1 player in cardiovascular systems, cardiology and radiology ultra-sound systems, patient monitoring systems and defibrillators. We have also started gaining significant market share in MRI and CT business. Going forward we are committed to serve the Indian healthcare market by bringing the best in class technology and supporting it with best in class customer service. Here, I would specifically like to mention our increased focus on serving the needs of small private hospitals and nursing homes. Philips Healthcare is now committing resources worldwide to make the technology more affordable so that we could serve the wide spectrum of our customer needs. What it means for a market like India is that Philips will have more products which are best in class in terms of technology and yet affordable to serve the need of hospitals in tier-II and tier-III cities. We are building our sales and service footprint to take these products to our customers in tier-II and tier-III cities. Going forward you will see lots of activities from our side in this space!
Are there any plans to launch or showcase any new products at Medicall 2012?
We already have a good portfolio of products to serve the unique needs of small hospital setups and we are selling these products well in the market. We would be showcasing these products at Medicall. As far as new product release is concerned, we would request you to wait till Aug 3, the first day of Medicall 2012 at Chennai. You just might see a new product release targeted specifically towards the small hospital set-up.
What are the goals/ agenda set to achieved at Medicall 2012?
We always aim to communicate effectively with our customers. Medicall provides a good platform to communicate with owners of small private hospitals and nursing homes. We plan to showcase our products and solutions that we have been adding to our kitty, exclusively for small hospital setups. Our participation will be completely handled by our new sales and marketing team which has a mandate to serve the small hospitals segment.