Carlos Jaime, Head of Samsung's Health & Medical Equipment Division, France, explains why the future of healthcare is in mobile technology and communications, and how Samsung’s expertise in “digital transformations” position the company as a catalyst for change in the industry.
The mobile health solution industry is clearly a major focus of Samsung. What particular actions is Samsung taking to address communication challenges in the healthcare sector?
Samsung eagerly innovates to address these challenges, and is keen to maintain its status as a leader in this market. The company has already established itself as a medical device supplier, with area knowledge and expertise particularly concerning regulatory constraints. The close relations Samsung shares with hospital management as well as nurses and practitioners that handle medical devices and technology is a key advantage of the company. This is magnified by the fact that Samsung has its own medical centers with ten thousand beds throughout the world.
In France we have established partnerships over the past two years with the likes of Orange Healthcare, UNIHA, UGAP and Mutualite Francaise to change the way of thinking regarding the relationship between patients, doctors, and hospitals. New technologies designed to address these relationships are set to launch in the coming months, primarily to improve the experience of patients as they are discharged from hospitals, and return home. In these instances, new technologies can provide greater amounts of information and communicative capabilities between patients and caretakers, despite distance. Samsung’s vision is to continue to develop these new tools, and strive to make them open source, as the added-value will not come from the tool itself, but rather the services provided around the tool.
In mobile health solutions, Samsung is creating a strong ecosystem connecting several medical devices, both Samsung devices, as well as those from other providers. Our mission is to create integrated solutions with industry partners, pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies and hospitals. The next step in the coming years is to harness the expertise Samsung offers, and industrialize it in efforts to treat thousands of patients.
Barriers in communication and data sharing between hospitals, physicians, and patients is an industry challenge for which Samsung seems keen to direct its ingenuity. What are Samsung’s strategies on addressing this matter?
From Samsung’s perspective, bridging the gaps in communication and data sharing between hospitals and practitioners requires extensive initiatives. Nearly two years ago, after a discussion with a partner at Orange Healthcare, we decided to organize a forum of nearly 100 people, including patients, doctors, and representatives from hospitals and insurance companies. Together in workshops, we discussed key aspects and steps in the patient experience, identifying nine tools, which we would develop and incorporate into the market to manage relationships.
Development of three of these tools was initiated immediately, starting with preparing and managing the relationship between all medical partners. A second tool focused on synchronizing and optimizing the several components taking place within a hospital. This involves the creation of a “dynamic pathway” connecting all activities within a hospital, including patient care as well as agendas of equipment and staff. A third project we are developing is the automatic organization of information of discharged patients back home for all medical partners, such as caretakers and practitioners. As these projects continue their development, we are initiating evaluations with our partners during the beginning of 2016 with a goal to bring these solutions to the market by year’s end. Once these three preliminary projects are launched, we will continue to progress with more innovations. Dramatically improving the patient experience is our utmost priority, along with using technology and ingenuity to better connect patients with their caregivers.
The patient experience today is hindered by far too much uncertainty and a lack of communication. Patients are unaware when doctors will see them, or how long their wait time will be. They are unsure what constitutes an emergency, and what does not. Providing dependable communication channels on mobile devices can greatly improve the efficiency of the healthcare experience for a patient. If, for example, a patient can register for a hospital visit in advance, much like they do for booking tickets on airlines, arriving at the check-in at the hospital with their information already prepared and accessible via their mobile device, waiting times and patient turnover can be managed much more efficiently. This is Samsung´s vision.
Treatment pathways from hospital to home for patients with chronic diseases is a topic of major focus at this moment for any European Healthcare authority. From your position working at Samsung France, how have you seen the French healthcare market evolve to meet these needs?
At Samsung, we do not see technologies to improve treatment pathways as a unique industry segment. Rather, we see it as a different way of thinking, creating a new ecosystem within the established industry. A rapidly changing market landscape is already creating new paradigms in healthcare. In France, ninety percent of senior citizens wish to spend the final years of their life in their own homes, and not in hospitals or rehabilitation centers. This tendency throughout the French market, in particular, demonstrates the unique demand to provide effective communicative pathways for patients and caretakers, and Samsung positions itself to provide its ingenuity to address such challenges.
With the growing demands of the French market alongside a constricted healthcare budget allocation, this poses a challenging economic situation to navigate. The number of hospital beds in the country will continue to decrease, with patients spending less time admitted in hospital. This will create new demands, and new opportunities, for mobile business in the healthcare sector to grow in the coming years. The mobile health solution market is anticipated to be a seven billion Euro industry in Europe (7.8 billion USD), and 20 billion Euros (22.4 billion USD) worldwide by 2018.
Increasingly, technology giants with massive financial resources are entering the healthcare industry. How does Samsung plan to stay ahead of these ambitious competitors and remain the “architect in digital health” that it claims to be?
Samsung is an expert in the digital transformation of all industries in which it is affiliated, and the company is striving to provide the same innovations for the healthcare sector as we have done for other sectors, such as banking and insurance. The expertise in digital transformation that Samsung offers is magnified by the fact that we are already established as a leader in the medical device industry, thereby in a position to capitalize on these two types of expertise together. Samsung focus goes beyond communication and information, as a leader in providing the technology and media to transmit this data, be it through phones and tablets, and we have found success in industrializing these products to have extensive market reaching potential. Simplifying life through technology is one of our key missions.
What has been your experience promoting the Samsung name among hospital and healthcare professionals in France, and how has France welcomed the Samsung brand?
Samsung has developed an excellent brand image within hospitals. The company has established itself as a reliable partner thanks in part to its novel ways of thinking. The size and international breadth of Samsung positions the company to be a major catalyst for evolution. We are aware of the directions in which the healthcare industry must evolve in order to be more efficient in the 21st century, and the company is paving the way to be a leader in this change. Samsung’s ingenuity in bringing access to technology to all is making an impact on the healthcare sector. With Samsung, the cost of a tablet for an everyday customer and those tailored for doctor is nearly the same, emphasizing the added value that comes from quality software and maximizing the potential of these mobile devices. This is an example where Samsung excels at both B2C sales and B2B sales; in fact, at Samsung, we take it further and strive for effective B2P sales, “Business to Patient” sales.
Under Samsung’s promise to “simplify access to hardware,” a tailored solution has been cultivated for France entitled, “Optimium Service,” allowing hospitals to audit their old appliances and replace them with new hardware and services. How has this approach met the needs specifically of the French market?
This is a Samsung initiative addressing a uniquely French issue. French hospitals are in debt of upwards of twenty billion Euros (22.8 billion USD). Due to financial restraints, these hospitals do not have the funds to allocate to renewing their machines and technology, with the average replacement time for medical devices as high as nineteen years. In terms of patient care, there are higher chances of risk when medical devices are outdated. The challenge, however, is that in France service costs to maintain or upgrade these devices are prohibitively high, and funds allocated towards investments are often not accounted the same as funds allocated toward renovations and refurbishments.
To address this situation, Samsung created a program entitled “Optimium Service” in France, providing medical devices to hospitals at the cost of services. Through this process, Samsung is able to interchange all outmoded devices with new Samsung innovations, later replaced with new technology every five years thereafter, at a cost to hospitals less than the costs to maintain old machinery. Samsung has stepped forward with a new way of thinking about the medical device market, and has found unique success in France through the expansion of service offerings, which may be setting a new trend to follow in the market for years to come.
Prior to Samsung, you have had a career spanning several years in the medical equipment field. What did you gain from your previous experience that has proved most useful to you in your role today?
I pride myself in being well informed about the hospital sector, with experience and knowledge of critical care departments and imaging departments, primarily as a systems installation specialist. Joining Samsung, I served as a liaison between these two worlds, linking the expectations of the hospital sector to innovative IT and medical device developments. I maintain my connections to patient associations and private doctor associations, and capitalize upon my experiences corresponding with patients to serve them in my current capacity at Samsung. Hospitals are obliged to open there doors to contemporary technologies and ideas, but with these innovations comes hesitation, and that is where a liaison is crucial. Creating a synergy between these two worlds has been a challenge, yet also a personal source of abundant learning and value, and I believe something that makes me unique in the market.
You have said that health sciences will be “a major focus for the company’s development in the next ten years.” What does the next ten years of Samsung Electronics Medical Equipment progress look like to you?
In the coming years, Samsung can anticipate both external as well as organic growth. Regarding the later, Samsung has announced an $800 million investment in a new biopharmaceuticals manufacturing plant in South Korea, anticipated for completion in 2017 and will be the largest of its kind in the world. Along with advancements in biosimilars, mobile health will be another major sector for advancement with Samsung. Samsung has much expertise to offer, and the better we can collaborate on these innovations and ideals, the better the company will be, and the better improvements we will be able to provide to patients worldwide. Samsung looks forward to working with clients, providing market leading digital solutions in the healthcare sector with the ingenuity and innovation that are part of the company’s DNA.
