Philips Healthcare Taiwan general manager, Jan Poon, talks about the innovative approach that Philips aims to implement in the local market; spanning from establishing a digital platform to working with government when ensuring the sustainability of Taiwan’s healthcare system.

You have recently become GM for Philips Taiwan. What have been your main priorities so far?

I was assigned to be general manager for Philips Hong Kong a year ago, then took another role as Philips Taiwan general manager in 2017. In Philips, we are focusing on achieving both short-term and long-term goals. My priority is to transfer global know-how from China and integrate it within Philips Taiwan. First, we want to establish a digital platform to avoid costs and achieve scalability. When talking about long-term priorities, we want to focus on improving the health system through innovative products as well as position Philips Taiwan as a half-tech company.

The Philips healthcare business is organized around four strategic business groups: Imaging Systems, Patient Care & Clinical Informatics, Home Healthcare Solutions, and Healthcare Transformation Services. Could you walk us through your technology portfolio?

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Philips Taiwan is nurturing five focused plays towards domain leadership; our innovative technology and solutions have a main task to support consumers and care providers. These five groups include Healthy Living, Prevention, Diagnosis, Treatment and Home Care. We promote Healthy Living through Personal Health section. Our main focus is on Health and Wellness connected propositions and services to consumers with objective to win in retail health. Prevention and diagnosis are promoted through definitive diagnosis which is focused on scaling and integrating diagnostic modalities aiming to measure and close the loop on diagnosis and treatment effectiveness.

Treatment is presented through Guided Therapy which allows real-time guidance to increase precision and application of minimally invasive interventions. Finally, Home Care focuses on chronic care connected propositions and services to consumers and patients linked to their providers. All of our products are fit to meet medical needs in four different areas: cardiology, oncology, respiratory and FPP (fertility-pregnancy-parenting).

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Last year, Philips signed a 10-year EUR 74 million agreement with Russia’s Expert Group of Companies to provide solutions combining advanced imaging systems with clinical informatics to improve cardiac care. What are the current partnerships with local stakeholders?

Currently, we are in the process of scanning local partners. As Philips understands the value of strategic partnerships, we want to make sure we develop a proper alliance. We are looking for someone who has extensive knowledge of the local market and who is able to focus on long-term care. Providing our consumers and care providers with the best care has always been our philosophy. With potential alliances, we hope to work towards achieving sustainability and impacting better outcomes and productivity.

For example, Philips launched its new global five-year sustainability program, ‘Healthy people, sustainable planet’, taking the next steps toward the goal of improving the lives of three billion people a year by 2025 by making the world healthier and more sustainable through innovation. We want to foster sustainablity and drive economic growth while ensuring well being at all ages, at Philips Taiwan we especially focus on promoting prevention as the best cure, we are aiming to integrate our product portfolio further into the health system, this can only be achieved by collaborating with local government and medical community.

What opportunities do you see for to further leverage health technologies in Taiwan?

The rapid growth of elderly population will create a need for long-term and home-based care. Establishing a comprehensive community care service is crucial for developing a system that is sustainable and adds value to people. Philips is willing to collaborate with government in order to make our contribution to the local community. We are dedicated to developing personalized care leading to efficiency. Power of innovative technology we develop can indeed further assist in achieving efficacy in medical performance.

CEO, Frans Van Houten addressed the goals for the future of Philips: further improving operational performance, boosting growth in existing core health technology, driving future growth and profit expansion with their shift to solutions. What are your main strategic objectives for the upcoming years?

Exciting time is ahead of us in Philips Taiwan. We are looking forward to launching a CT scanner in second half year. Also, we have some upcoming launches of new products soon. As I mentioned earlier, it is my objective to establish a digital platform that will enable effective continuum and healthcare transformation services. We will also focus on connected care and expanding our monitoring leadership and therapeutic care products and services. Leveraging consumer and clinical insights to manage population health and deliver effective personalized care to people is also one of our main goals for the future.

On a personal note, where will we find you and Philips Taiwan in five years?

I will build a base for Philips Taiwan. Currently, we are in the incubation stage and our main focus is on contributing to the local market. I am convinced we will do so in the upcoming years.